After the 3 hour ride, we landed in Wellington, amid confusion as we didn’t have a map!! We didn’t know where we were going, or how far we were from the city. We looked for a taxi or bus, and got ushered onto a coach heading for the train station. We didn’t want a train but got told to go here anyway as taxis and buses would be cheaper. From the train station Evelyn quickly got a cab sorted and decided that we would pay extra to catch a taxi rather than get lost on the bus system… or as Marc had suggested – walk!! Evelyn still remembers the nightmare journey we had in Perth and with all the luggage we had, Marc couldn't blame her really.
We checked into our hostel- The Wildlife House, which was a decent place. It has the slowest lifts in the world, and the trip to the 4th floor for the kitchen always took forever. The kitchen itself was ok, though a bit dirty as no-one did their washing up. The fridges were also a bit smelly. There was free internet here, though there were only a few machines working so we had to wait over 30mins to get a machine. Still, the rooms were ok, and we were right in the centre of the city.
City seems a strange way to describe Wellington as it doesn’t have that city feel to it. It seems small, quiet, and there isn’t really too much here. The main street is full of bars and restaurants, and looks a lively place to go out. At the western end, there is the cinema where Lord Of The Rings premiered, and they still show Return of the King every Sunday. It’s then a 10 minute walk to the hill-side train going up to the botanical gardens. In between there are shops and Little Cuba, but nothing of real note.
One of the highlights of Wellington is the Te Papa museum, so we went in to have a look. We spent a couple of hours in here, admiring the artefacts and memorabilia, and picking up a few facts about the Maori and NZ history. We stopped for lunch here, which was quite nice.
Next, we headed up to the botanical gardens, more because it was mentioned in the LP book, rather than because we really wanted to. When we got to the top, there were some pretty nice views, but we were quite tired from the previous night so weren’t feeling too energetic.
We forced ourselves to have a short walk whilst up here, to look at the observatory and the shadow clock (stand in the centre and your shadow tells the time). On our way back to the hostel we thought about going to the cinema, but as our timing was a bit off there was nothing on. It being a Saturday night, the bars were beginning to get lively, but we headed back for a quiet night in.
Next morning we decided that Wellington didn’t hold much interest for us as sightseers, and its probably a better place to come if you are working and want to sample Kiwi life – work and play. And as we are on a tight schedule, and would prefer to see things rather than sit in a café/bar, we arranged to pick up the car a day early and head north.
Saying that, we couldn’t leave without going up to Mt Victoria lookout. As usual we made the 5 minute journey in 15 (our usual trademark of taking the dodgy back roads). When we got to the top, there were some pretty good views out over the city. There were also some enterprising young lads selling fresh lemonade and “Russian” fudge, so we decided to buy some fudge for our drive ahead and support the kids ;)
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