Wellington and Christchurch

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Wellington and Christchurch

Our next stop was Wellington, the capitol of New Zealand. Auckland was the first capitol until the south island threatened to become independent because it was being ignored by the north. So, they moved the capitol to Wellington which is still on the north island, but on the southern tip. It is much smaller than Auckland, but easy to get around. It has a beautiful harbor and is quite hilly - reminding us a bit of a small San Francisco. We took a shuttle bus from the ship to the downtown area where we walked to the cable car station to ride to the botanical gardens at the top. The day was sunny and warm and the view did the city proud.

From the bottom, we caught a city bus and traversed the main streets to the Te Papa museum where we were treated to several exhibits from Maori outrigger canoes and art to modern paintings and even a junk shop that came alive at night - sort of Disneyish, but cute. After that, we found a local pub on the wharf where we feasted on some local beer and fish n chips. We walked back to the shuttle bus area and were met with a bicycle race along the main quay. On the ride back to the ship we saw the parliament building dubbed the beehive - guess why. Yep, it’s shaped just like one. A most delightful day.

Super Bowl Monday found us in Christchurch. Because we crossed the dateline a while back, the game was Monday here. Actually, we were on a tour and missed the game. The day was cloudy and it rained some, so I didn’t take any pictures. Speaking of pictures, I finally was able to talk to an internet person who said the signal will continue to be intermittent because of all the people using the internet, and not to expect to add more than one or two pictures at a time to the blog. Therefore, I will continue to publish as I can. It is frustrating to pick out pics , add a title, click upload, and wait to be told the link is broken. He also said no one on the ship can use Skype! That means we will have to go to a place on shore where we take our laptop and they have a wireless connection. Bummer!

Back to our tour. We went on the TranzAlpine Train which goes across the south island from east to west. It rises into the Southern Alps to Arthur’s Pass, and then down the other side. Well, the weather wasn’t too great and we had to sort of take the mountain peaks on faith. We went as far as the pass and returned by motor coach. It cleared up a bit on the way back, but it was a disappointing day. We had a brief tour of the town, and stopped at the art center for a quick look before returning to the ship. We skipped dinner in the dining room to watch the sail away and saw the pilot jump into his little boat as we left the harbor on the way to Dunedin. Oh, yes, we were happy the Giants won.

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