Wellington Bootes!

The rain that had arrived in Martinborough followed us to Wellington but it wasn't going to deter us from sampling a little city life after many days in small towns and rural New Zealand. Wellington has the nickname of the windy city due to the ever present winds that funnel through the Cook Straits and we felt the effect as we strolled along the waterfront from our car park / camper van site to Te Papa. 

Te Papa must be New Zealands best museum. It is located right on the waterfront in a contemporary building and has so much to see that it be easy to spend day after day exploring the wonders it contains. From giant squid to both traditional and contemporary Maori meeting houses (marae) and much more in between it was hard to leave after just half a day. 

Our next destination was Cuba Street. This runs almost down to the harbour front for at least 1km and is full of quirky shops, restaurants and street art. I liked Cuba Street a lot...it had a counter culture vibe and there is a bucket fountain and a laundrette that converts into a restaurant in the evening. We settled on a superb South Indian/Malaysian restaurant for a meal that served a tasty goat curry with dosa. Mrs B.was ambitious and went for a hot chicken redang!

The next morning the rain had disappeared and this was the cue to take the famous Wellington cable car up to the botanic gardens. 

An interesting little museum on the history of the cable car detained us before a slow walk down through the botanic garden towards the parliament building completed our morning. This was very relaxing as the botanic gardens are full of native trees species as well as some very pretty blooms.

 

Arriving back near the waterfront we found a classical music store that did coffee and cake. This fuelled a bit more walking. We went on to Oriental Bay and this provided great views back to Wellington harbour as well as a diverting few moments watching an oyster catcher.

Boat houses on the way to Oriental Bay

Walking back we passed the Embassy Theatre..actually a cinema and the place where the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies premiered. After about 8 miles of walking around Wellington we had a final meal in Cuba street for the second night running before retiring to Ned for a final sleep on the North Island. We needed to be up early the following morning...as we had a ferry to catch.