Our Travelling SHANanigans: Wellington

August 2-6

We took the 3 hour InterIslander Ferry across from Picton to Wellington. It was raining really hard that day so we were stuck inside and couldn’t really enjoy the views of the surrounding sounds. Once we hit the open seas my stomach was not a fan of the ferry crossing and I was nauseated until we docked in port in Wellington.

Wellington looks like a large city and since it is the capital of New Zealand we were expecting the population to be large, we were very surprised that it was only approx 200,000 people. The city itself is beautiful; they have really enhanced the waterfront and made it an inviting area to spend time in the nearby cafes and bars. There are also stunning sculptures all over the city that embrace the fact that the city is known as “Windy Wellington.” Street crossings offer plastic partitions so people waiting the cross the road will be protected from the gusts of wind. I would like to recant my previous statement when I compared Auckland to San Francisco. Neal and I definitely felt that Wellington was a better comparison to SF, as the housing, hills and waterfront are very similar, not to mention the infamous winds!!

We drove to Mount Victoria to see the views of the city and surrounding bays, we also got to watch the planes take off and land at the nearby airport. After exploring a little bit of the city on our own we met up with my Aunt Deirdre, her husband Steve; my cousins Conal & Rebecca and Conal’s girlfriend Alena. We spent our time touring the city and getting great perspectives from Deirdre and Steve who grew up there. Rebecca is an eco-biologist who works in New Plymouth; directing the conservation of the eco system in Taranaki. It was really interesting to hike with her because we got to learn so many different things about the plants, birds and pests in New Zealand. Everyone was really thoughtful and took Friday off to show us around. We went out to Petone and walked around the pier, we also took the cable car up a very steep hill to see the views of the city from above and also to see the Botanical gardens. We stopped by for a quick visit into Te Papa museum and saw the earthquake “shake house” that allows you to somewhat feel what an earthquake is like. An interesting fact about Wellington is that it is built up right on the major Wellington fault. This fault that runs up along the major highway has most of the hospitals built along it as well. All I hope is that there isn’t a major earthquake anytime soon. However, they have a few of the buildings with base stabilizers that are placed between the base of the buildings and the ground that will absorb more of the shock from an earthquake and result in less damage or destruction. Afterwards, we went for a drive along the bays and out to Owhiro Bay. We had a great dinner out at a Malaysian restaurant in town and had a relaxing evening to watch the Olympics.

On Saturday Conal & Alena took us to the “Weta Cave” to see the collectables of Peter Jackson’s movies including Lord of the Rings props in Miramar. We then headed out to Upper Hutt where Deirdre and Steve live. We explored Kaitoke gardens and did some hikes around there. This was where “Rivendell” was filmed for Lord of the Rings. We also hiked around Pakuratahi forest and explored an old railway tunnel. We had a fabulous roast beef dinner that Deirdre made for Alena’s birthday. It was really nice to have a home cooked family meal! We spent time catching up on the latest news and played with Steve’s daughter Cara and her husband Ollie’s puppies, while watching some of the Olympics.

Sunday we all headed out for a beach day in Paraparaumu, considering it is still winter here in New Zealand it was a beautiful warm and sunny day that we lucked out with walking along the beach, picking up pumice stones that wash up on shore and enjoying the views of Kapiti Island. We had a delicious lunch on the patio in town and ate some tasty ice cream bars for dessert. We enjoyed some true New Zealand Pavlova for Alena’s birthday cake. We indulged in more Olympics and got to enjoy one last night sleeping in a real bed before heading off in the camper van. It was really nice to get a break from the camper but over all we have really loved travelling in it.