New Zealand - North Island

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Hi everyone, set off in the morning and walked to the cable car at Lambton Quay which takes you to the top at Kelburn at the top of the botanic gardens, where there were great views across Wellington, I was amazed to find out that a lot of people have their own private cable cars as they live in the hills surrounding Wellington. We went into the museum and had a look at the older cars, construction started in 1899 and opened 22 February 1902, carrying 4,000 people on its first weekend of operation, also later on a tea house was built at the summit. We then walked through the Botanic gardens which were lovely, the trees are so big, we went into the Begonia House which contains the tropical plants, so hot. We also walked through the Lady Norwood Rose Garden, she was the wife the former Mayor, there were over 300 varieties of roses and they smell over here, at home if I have any roses they never smell. So from there we walked, we did a lot of that yesterday to the Civic Square where people were gathering to get ready for the Cricket, it was the quarter finals, NZ versus West Indies. People were sat out on bean bags, band was playing, they had girls marching to the band, haven't seen that for years, do we have that anymore ? everyone in a very good mood. We then walked down by the waterfront and joined loads of people walking to the stadium, probably took about 50 minutes, lots of people dancing and playing songs on the way. As we didn't have tickets we left there and went to the University of Law building and were allowed in to have a good look around, then went across to the Beehive and Parliament building and had a tour, again beautiful building and tour very interesting. From there we walked back up town, went into The Old Bank shopping Arcade which used to be the headquarters of The Old Bank of New Zealand, which opened in 1901, still have a lot of the old original features, mosaic floor, high intricate plaster ceilings, ornate balustrades and loads of dark timber wood everywhere, stunning building, very grand. We then walked to The Te Papa Museum which I thought was just the best, I love the museums out here, we could have spent all day in there, just floors and floors of history on the Maori and Pacific people, Captain Cook, people emigrating, also an exhibition on Air New Zealand as they have been going 75 years so gave a history showing their old uniforms and insides of old planes, also new ideas they have. Really a fantastic exhibition, just didn't have enough time. There were also costumes and props from the Hobbit trilogy, part of the Middle-earth film, for all you Hobby Hobbit lot !! Wellington certainly is a lovely city, lots to do, clean and not expensive.

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