Wednesday, November 13th, 2013
We only planned one full day here so today was the day to explore. The weather was quite inhospitable with southerlies from the Antarctic making the 16 degree temperature feel like much less. We walked all day, stopping only for a quick snack mid-afternoon. Wellington is a very compact city and getting to everything we wanted to see by foot was doable.
Our hotel was conveniently located at one end of the harbour so we started there and worked our way through the city along the bay to visit a couple of theatres, shops and the city's council buildings, library and the I-site center where we made arrangements for our next couple of nights.
Then we carried on to ride the cablecar up to Kelburn Lookout for a panoramic view of the city and harbour.
Instead of riding back on the cable car, we walked down through the Wellington Botanic Garden enjoying many hectares of beautiful native and imported flora. We've seen a lot of botanic gardens by now, so much of what we're seeing is repetitious. The rose garden was in full bloom, though, and was quite spectacular. By the time we arrived at the parliament buildings, I was too weak and tired to enter or even photograph that gorgeous round building, nicknamed "the beehive".
After a quick snack to revive me, we carried on back along the waterfront to Te Papa National Museum. This is THE New Zealand museum and it's fabulous! We were advised to leave the museum visit until the end of our day as it is easy to get carried away and a visit can gobble up an entire day. We only had two hours there but we made the most of it.
Once the museum closed we started looking for dinner. The St. John's Ambulance Bar and Grill was near the museum and had been recommended, so we checked it out. What a cool ambience with the sun-drenched front lawn scattered with dozens of colorful body pillows! Most of those pillows were occupied by lazing 20-somethings and their glasses of beer. I should have photographed it! The place was too crowded and noisy for us so we found a small brewery/restaurant near the pier. During our meal we watched many hundreds of people running, jogging and speedwalking a circuit right past our window. We have no idea what the event was, but some of the fastest participants passed us at least 3 times.
It was a long day and my feet were happy to get back home this evening!
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