WELLINGTON, NZ FROM M/S OOSTERDAM

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WELLINGTON, NZ



When I woke up this morning and looked out my window, I saw nothing - the fog was very dense. I was going to do a self tour today, so I went back to bed, hoping the fog would lift. An hour later, the fog hadn’t lifted but time was moving so I got showered, dressed and breakfasted ready to go. I took a shuttle into town and got off preparing to do a self directed walking tour. Near me was the base station for the Cable Car. The fog was starting to lift so I decided to try. The cable car station was not to busy at this time, so I bought my round trip ticket and enjoyed the trip up. The first stop was at the Victoria University, very pretty but the view was restricted because of the fog. At the top was the Cable Car Museum and the beginning of the downward trail through the Botanical Gardens. I waited for about an hour for the fog to lift in the valley and on the waterfront. Some improvement in visibility and I did get a few dramatic photos, but I had to give up waiting because of time constraints. When I got back to city level, I walked through the city to the waterfront. This is a vibrant, cosmopolitan city, the capitol city of New Zealand, and it feels like it. A walk through the city at lunch time revealed people dressed for business and some tourists. Some non-English and Maori languages were overheard. The waterfront was nice and I saw several kayakers at play. A highlight was the parliament buildings and the World War I and World War II monument. The wording left a great impression on me: “These laid the world away poured out the red sweet wine of youth, gave up the years to be of work and joy and that unhoped serene that men call age and those who would have been their sons gave their immortality”. On the way back to my shuttle bus to the ship, I stopped at The Old Bailey for lunch and a local brew. I had a very good seafood stew and a local dark beer and noticed the SU/BC basketball game on ESPN; 7:00 PM EST (Wednesday) and 1:00 PM (Thursday) here. I got back to the ship in time to see SU lose their first game of the season. We left Wellington with good visibility, but fog found us again.

ILYS

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Photos

FROM THE TOP
NOTE THE FOG