Wellington

Good morning all!

Today we made our last port stop in North Island at Wellington, the capitol city of New Zealand.  Wellington is a city of 350,000, and it bears a great resemblance to San Francisco, with its steep, narrow streets, Victorian style houses hanging off cliff sides, and magnificent ocean views. 

And of course, the futuristic looking red cable cars.  We rode our cable car to the highest vantage point in the city and took in the sights from high above. It was a rainy day today, but the view was still spectacular. 

From here, we meandered back down into town through the lovely Wellington Botanical Gardens.  These gardens are a must-see when visiting Wellington. They have been designed into a vast hillside area stretching from the highest point in town and cascading back down to the central business district. They include a large rose garden, woodland gardens, a children's play area, native and non-native gardens, a tea house, and many more sections I'm sure I have forgotten.  Here are just a few shots we took during our walk. 

When we reached the lower part of town again, guess what we found?  Yep!  STARBUCKS!  All decked out for Christmas. In fact, everything here has been decorated for Christmas since we arrived. New Zealanders have no Thanksgiving, so we are guessing that they jump right into Christmas spirit after Halloween. We have been hearing carols since we arrived - mostly our familiar US carols. But we digress; here is the Wellington Starbucks entrance...

It was a very nice Starbucks, with a second floor that had nothing but cozy, overstuffed leather chairs - the perfect place to sit and enjoy free WIFI, which we did for an hour or so. 

Once we had our Starbucks fix, we were ready for a bit of sightseeing in downtown.  We saw this interesting structure and learned that it is the Capitol building. Very unconventional. The locals refer to it as "The Beehive," and I'm sure you can see why. 

There is an interesting mix of old and new in downtown Wellington. Steel and glass skyscrapers mingle with provincial government buildings.  There are trendy restaurants and boutiques, maritime museums, modern marinas, historical residences and embassies, and beautiful glass-enclosed verandas.  We spent two hours or so walking around town, then rode our shuttle bus back to the ship in time for dinner. 

Tonight we rented a movie and slept rather early. Hoping to get up early tomorrow for 8 am stretch class!

Wishing you all a great evening!

With love,

David and Karen