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Published: January 7th 2007
Wellington Cable Car
More of a funicular railway wouldn't you say?Miracle of miracles, when we woke up this morning it was neither raining nor desperately windy. Time at last to venture further afield and actually enjoy a day out in Wellington - hooray!
We decided to attempt the cable car again which had broken down the first time we went to ride it. Today it was working just fine and a quick flash of our fake student ID cards got us a return ticket for just NZ$2 instead of NZ$4.5 - excellent! The ride up was pleasant and being first in the queue, we got to stand at the front as we rode up. We played around with Jish for a while much to the amusement of the other passengers and enjoyed our little trip up to the top. I still don't think you can exactly class it as a cable car (see my previous rant and rave for more info on the matter!) and as it took only about 5 minutes, it was a gentle rather than thrilling ride. Beats walking up though!
At the top we took a look around the free Cable Car Museum which was nicely presented and very professional looking but ultimately very dull
All Aboard
Glynn tries to get excited about the cable car ride... indeed. Next to the museum was the entrance to the Botanical Gardens so we made the most of the opportunity to be outdoors and went for a walk. The gardens were pleasant with an area showcasing plants and trees from Australia and a nice cactus garden. Other than that however, it wasn't as impressive as some places we've been to so far on our travels. It's kind of ironic that the one thing that New Zealand does well is naturally beautiful landscapes but when they attempt to recreate it on a small scale, it just doesn't have anywhere near the same impact.
The best part of being at the top was without doubt the commanding views over the city sprawl below. There was an old gun turret sat pointing menacingly across the city which was amusing. The Carter Observatory is also situated in the same area but having seen a couple of planetarium shows in Japan and Malaysia already we gave it a miss this time. My toes were still rather painful so we didn't stay in the gardens for too long.
On our back back to the hostel we stopped off at the supermarket and picked up
Hang On!
What's Jish doing up there? a couple of packs of very delicious muffins that had been reduced (we had them for dinner AND desert!). On our way round the shop we bumped into none other than our friend Roger, the kiwi guy we had met in Thailand and recently also met up with in his home town of Rotorua. We knew he was in the Wellington or Palmerston North areas but couldn't believe that we actually managed to see each other again completely by accident! We had a good long chat and by the time we left, not even the rain that had started to fall could wash the smiles from our faces. At last, something good had happened to us in Wellington!
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