In August, Wellington hosted a light festival for ten days during which there were works of art placed along waterfront and laneways in the city centre.

A glowing tree next to the Wellington Chocolate Factory

Since we missed it last year, we’ve decided to put it right. So, wrapped up with scarfs and with gloves on we set out into a chilly night.

A surrealistic passage with the light show on

We didn’t know exactly where the works had been placed but when we got into town it wasn’t difficult to find them. It was a weekday but the places were overcrowded by people and they even lined up for entrance to some expositions. We decided to avoid those ones.

Bara and Kuba freezing at Waterfront

We spent at least an hour walking among lightworks. There were some really nice ones like fish and jellyfish projected on water drops spurting out of fountain moored on sea surface. Or there were some cool ones like a sea creature and a lane full of light blades. On the other hand, there were ones which we didn’t really understand – something called a motorised nebulous or weird hypnotising squares.

Kids playing light twister at Waterfront

My favorite one was an animation projected on a brick wall which looked almost alive as the projected light created an illusion of a ticking pendulum clock, filling a bottle with water or riding bicycle.

A stranger staring at the magnificant performance

The only thing which we couldn’t find was a stand with glowing ice-cream. All around we only met people with flashing candy floss but no glowing ice-cream. Nevertheless, it was a chilly night anyway, so at least we made it up with a cup of hot chocolate from Wellington Chocolate Factory. Delicious and warm!