Wellington

Day out in wellington!

Another day in NZ and as we head north it becomes warmer and brighter each day! Finally see the sun and at moments feel a little heat. We are taking a city cruise on a bus and the cable car up the mountain to ‘take in all the sights’ the city has to offer.

Went around all the island and saw the views from al various angles. There are some amazing properties built up on the hills with the only access is by personal cable cars. They have a garage for their cars on the road, then have a separate access next to it to board their personal car to ride up the hill to their cliff top home! Talk about privacy! Living all the way in NZ on a hilltop with no access except by cable car!

Went into town and road the cable car up the hill to the botanic gardens and over to ‘Lady Norwood’s Rose Garden’ – and although it isn’t the season for roses down here, there were some beautiful ones in bloom. And the begonias were amazing too!

Then on to the pub (of course!) by the harbour in order to keep our spirits and weight up! It was situated right beside the Te Papa museum which was a huge new building with all kinds of interactive exhibits on display for kids and adults. Saw many of the native animals (casts or stuffed) and read about the changes NZ has experienced with introducing plants and wildlife to the land. Many of the native species have become extinct and there was a place where probably one hundred animals, plants and flowers were listed in memorium. There was also a place to be in a house and experience the earthquake that shook a little town further north in the 1930’s (I think). Having never been in an earthquake, it was fun to experience since I knew it wasn’t real. As one woman said after the quake – the people who experienced it for real surely weren’t laughing and smiling like we were.

Had to do some final shopping as it’s a national holiday Wednesday in NZ – ANZAC day – their remembrance day, so many things might not be open – but we are off to the wineries so we probably won’t get much shopping done anyway! Purchased a few things, but not much really. I know I am spoilt for choice in London with shopping and going to Wellington just isn’t the same. Hopefully the islands in the pacfic will be good for unusal shopping.

Made it back to dinner in the evening. Everyone seemed to have missed me the evening before – we do have a funny group and have jolly conversations. There is one Northern Ireland couple who have lived in Toronto for the last 30+ years and the rest are from the US. There are a lot of people from Australia, Canada and the UK on board, but mainly Americans. I think they said there are 44 nationalities represented out of the 2,500 passengers.

I am not the youngest on board as I have seen a young family with three young kids (about 4 – 10 in age). I thought they must be home schooled in order to make this trip. Although I haven’t seen them today. Some people have gotten off along the way so maybe they are only doing NZ and then getting off to return home. I’ll have to keep my eye out for them!