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Published: December 3rd 2013
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Wellington cable car
Early so new queues! Still some dozy German stood in front of Ian. You can image he wasn't happy as loads of spare seats Complementary breakfast at this hotel on a special deal we got relating to the Wellington soccer team having a home match! For a free gift it was remarkably good - obviously had the buffet omelette but in this case it was brought to the table by the chef himself with the words "here is your ham and cheese omelette topped with a little avocado oil and finished with a sprinkling of micro greens (or cress to you and me)"!
Once we had completely over eaten we headed off to the cable car (yes our third of the trip, can you remember where the other two were, answers at the end of the page). It runs right from the centre of the city, right behind McDonalds and has been in service since 1902 although it was completely refurbished with new tracks and carriages in 1979. It carries over one million people per year. As it runs between Kelburn, a suburb of Wellington (for which it was originally built) and the city it is still used by commuters. It also has an interim stop for the university and for the rest of us it is used to get up to the botanical
Ian boarding the tram
Shame his shirt clashes so! gardens. And then you walk down through the gardens back into town.
Before starting our walk down we dropped in on the cable car museum, which is built from the original winding house. Small but perfectly formed, we watched an interesting film on people who have private cable cars for their houses in hilly Wellington. Two had had them built when their dogs couldn't cope with the steps! Pretty cool though as a way to get to your home.
Finally started off down the hill through the botanical gardens. I should have said that the sun was shining but it was a bit breezy and definitely from the top of this hill I had been sensible and brought a jumper but my tough northern husband still wants to pretend he is on the Gold Coast and dressed in only a polo shirt. Suffice to say the walk could only take place on the sunny side of the garden!
So our third Botanical garden of the trip (as before, answers below) and I have to say that this one won hands down. It was beautifully laid out with lots of different areas, very well kept and kept your
interest the whole way around. You can walk all the way back to the city through the garden, which we did, just stopping for a cup of coffee in the rose garden which smelt beautiful.
From there we headed to the harbour where the national museum is. It is called Te Papa and I wanted to catch up in my normal geek way. Now to get to the harbour we walked past our hotel and 5 minutes later we were at the harbour side. After yesterday, Ian had brought the list of recommended restaurants and, guess what, all 4 were on the dockside (one was CALLED dockside). Anyway we decided that we would definitely eat in one of them that night!
By now the sun was properly shining and on a sunny Sunday afternoon there were lots of people walking the dockside with their children or having a drink in one of the bars. It felt like a completely different city to the one we had walked around the previous evening which seemed more gloomy ghost town.
We left the sun behind and headed into the museum. It's a brilliant museum with lots of interactive media used
I should have brought my jumper!
Overacting in photos seems to be his new game. Sad boy! and areas to watch films on different subjects, films in 3D, an earthquake simulator and even a virtual bungee jump!! As always I was keen to learn something about the Maori culture although in New Zealand it is far more mainstream than the Aboriginal one is in Australia. They have built a modern meeting house (marae) in the museum along with a modern entrance (waharoa). As you can see from the photo Ian and I tried out the traditional welcome as unfortunately we won't have time to attend a Maori hangi while we are here.
We also spent time in huge areas relating to the nature side of New Zealand, both their flora and fauna as well as their amazing geological background. Helped explain the geothermal pools from a few days ago.
Our final wander was around some costume designs done for prerevious versions of an annual show called WOW (World of wearable art). It used to be held in Nelson, our next visit but is now held in Wellington. The costumes are not really wearable in a fashion sense, they relate far more to design and culture and the show is also completely choreographed with lots of
dancers. They were amazing - Made me really want to go so maybe back to Wellington in September?
After a good three hours of having our minds developed we decided we had earned a drink or two. Found a nice bar on the harbour which did cold Sauvignon blanc, good pale ale and a nice bowl of wedges!
In the evening we went back for dinner at a restaurant called Foxglove which was worth dressing up for as it was quite posh. Made up for the night before especially as it was our last night in North Island. Back to bed where I crashed straight away! Then woke up as Ian went to bed around midnight and then had a blog stress. But at least I posted 3 days worth even if it meant I didn't get to sleep till 2am! I was told it would become an obsession and it so has! Too late now though, we are 5 weeks into our 6 weeks now. How time flies.
Answers: Cable car ; Hong Kong, Blue Mountains
Answers: Botanical Gardens; Sydney, Melbourne
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