Advertisement
Wellington City from the Botanic Garden
Cable car that takes you up to the GardenUp at the crack of dawn and into Wellington with my brother-in-law before 7.30 – desirable to “beat the traffic”. David went to work, leaving Valda and I to explore and to buy our final gifts for family etc. We started off by walking around the harbour area, taking in the atmosphere of the buildings etc. Wellington has done a good job in making the harbour an interesting place to walk around.
During the day we explored the shops looking for tourist gifts to take back home and found two extremes - cheap tacky souvenirs and very expensive gift shops, but found nothing in the middle. It was our fault of course for leaving things to the last minute to get our presents.
We took the cable car up the hill to the Botanic Garden – a must if you like quirky fun transport, and visited the small cable car museum at the top. We then started to walk down the meandering Botanic Garden pathway towards the town, but the rain gods decided to have their final laugh at us and sent us down Noah flood to dampen our spirits. But hey, we’re Geordies, and
Wellington Harbour
Sculpture on the edge. sneer at such challenges, and so with a cough and a splutter, we wound our way back to the City. Seriously, the Botanic gardens are nice, but would have been better viewed on a sunny summer’s day.
Do you want to talk to a local? All you have to do is stand in the street and open a map. Three times we did this and each time, within literally seconds, locals were offering to help us find our way. This was a really nice welcoming touch from the population. Thank you. We only came across one miserable person in a place we wouldn’t expect, and that was the receptionist in the “Tree House Visitor’s Centre” in the botanic garden. We were the only ones in the centre but she couldn’t be bothered to lift her head out of her computer to give a welcoming hello. Ah well.
We visited the cathedral, which is very modern and was completed less than 20 years ago. No disrespect intended, but there is something of character about an old cathedral that isn’t easily duplicated in a modern one such as this. The rain cleared, and we headed to
New Zealand’s national museum, Te Papa, as it had been recommended. This is definitely worth a visit, is child friendly (I was happy) and even better is free. Displays included those related to Maori culture, history of immigration, art, a natural history exhibition that includes the biggest giant squid ever caught, and a look at earthquakes where you can experience an earthquake simulator. This visit sapped what little energy we had left in us and headed back to be picked up, and gratefully taken home.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.047s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 23; dbt: 0.0246s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1mb
