Wellington, New Zealand

Wellington, New Zealand--Radiance OTS, Day 7, March 25, 2014

Windy Wellington, sure enough, was windy and cold when we arrived at the port. Its hilly terrain reminded me a little like Hong Kong and San Francisco. This capital city of New Zealand is compact and easy to explore, at least the parts of the city that we were visiting. We were not ambitious and had to consider FIL's mobility issues when planning our day here.

Arriving at the port of Wellington.

The weather didn't look promising.

We left the ship at 8:30 and took the cruise shuttle ($10pp all day) to the city center. The shuttle stopped near the Info office on Wakefield near Cuba Street first and then stopped at Brandon Street where we got off.

From Brandon we crossed over to Lambton Quay and headed towards Cable Car Lane where we would catch the cable car.

Department store on Lambton Quay

Cable Car Lane is a little alley off Lambton Quay near the McDonald's. 

ticket booth

Here it is!

We were early enough to avoid the crowds.

There is a car running every 10 minutes.

Arrived at the stop at Kelburn

Kelburn station

gorgeous view of the harbor

Radiance OTS can be seen here at the lookout.

The exterior of the Kelburn station.

One of the two original cable cars inside the Cable Car Museum.

Watched the video about the history of the cable cars.

Taking the downhill walk through the Wellington Botanic Garden.

Cable Car Museum

There are several hiking paths inside the Botanic Garden. We followed the pink flowers painted on the walkway for the downhill path to the city.

It was about a 20-minute walk from the cable car to the Rosegarden.

The Treehouse--a good place to stop for information and restroom break. I believe they also have wheelchairs/scooters for use here.

After walking down near the Founder's Entrance at Glenmore Street, we saw this building that looked like a Japanese temple across the street from the garden. But we also noticed the cross...

it turned out that it wasn't what we thought it was.

It was actually a Chinese Anglican church.

Then, half of our group went outside Glenmore Street, then reentered the garden with an easier walk as we took the path uphill to the herb garden.

A great view of the harbor from the top of the garden. 

Looking down at the Lady Norwood Rosegarden and Begonia House.

One of the plaque in the garden.

herb garden

walking down to the rose garden

One of the many decorated 'eggs' around the city.

Inside Begonia House

                                     

                                   

Then we continued our walk past Anderson Park and Bolton Street Memorial Park...

onto the overpass

across Motorway SH1

to Bowen Street where the Beehive (Parliament Building) was in full view. By now, FIL was exhausted and it started to sprinkle so we had to give up the idea of taking a tour of the Parliament Building and visiting Old St. Paul's. 

Walked back to Brandon Street so they could take the shuttle back to the ship.

Christian and I decided that we did not want to go back yet, so we continue our exploration on Lambton Quay to Willis Street and eventually made our way to Cuba Street.

Cuba Street

Using the free wi-fi to check out places for lunch at Cuba Mall.

This is a pedestrian street.

We ended up having lunch at an Indian Restaurant recommended online.

This was a great find and we enjoyed a delicious and inexpensive lunch here.

garlic naan, wonderful!

Tulsi

For under $10 pp, it was a lunch that we totally enjoyed.

After lunch, we took the shuttle back to the ship. We got on the shuttle at the Wakefield stop and we were able to get on easily. But when the bus stopped at the Brandon stop, there was a long long line of people waiting to get on. Only 6 people got on our bus and the rest had to wait for the next ones. It's better to catch the shuttle at Wakefield for shorter wait.

We did not get to see all that we planned on but we had a wonderful time in Wellington. 

There was a medical emergency on the ship in the afternoon as we heard the PA system calling "Alpha, alpha, alpha" for a cabin on deck 8 three times. Never found out what happened though.

veal shank

puff pastry salmon

The ship was rocking and rolling quite a bit that night.