Pubs in Wellington

Pubs facing the water are beautiful along the Wellington harbor. Beer and french fries seem popular. When you are done, if there's a little of the sour cream accompaniment left -- a gull will dip his beak in it:
Pub food also seemed very good. In a pub on Tinakori Road we had shellfish chowder and lamb shank:
The fries we ate at the Backbencher were kumara fries. The kumara is a sweet potato that the Maori brought with them to New Zealand:
The Backbencher is across the street from Parliament, so naturally, along with beer it features larger-than-life caricatures of politicians. Needless to say, we recognized no one, but identified the "types" completely:

And here is one cafe -- another type of casual dining -- where we had breakfast several times, and dinner once:
After yesterday, the longest travel day I can remember (Wellington-Sydney-Los Angeles-Detroit), we are home. I can now say that the food throughout the trip was fabulous. We enjoyed these casual places. We ate in the cheap neighborhoods across the harbor from the hotel. And we sampled the more formal establishments on the wharf. All the locals seem to recommend Shed 5 as the best for elegant seafood. We definitely had a great meal there but also had many others.