Feb9, after lunch and a walk around Napier, we drove to Wellington, the capital of NZ. It is known as a wet and windy city and has quite a bit of history (at least for NZ). The downtown area is built around the waterfront and port, with hills rising steeply as you go away from the water.
There are many restaurants and cafes along the water. On a cloudy Sunday afternoon in the summer, it was lively but not crowded.
There are some nice plazas and pedestrian areas.
And quite a bit of art sprinkled throughout the downtown and waterfront area.
Does Wellington have a connection with the “Inception” movie?
Wellington is a well protected harbor and shipping was a major force in the development of the area.
This is the national parliament building, called “The Beehive” by locals.
Wellington has a cable car that goes up a very steep incline, rising 120m in a distance of 609m, from downtown up to Kelburn, a suburb in the hills. The cable car was first built in 1898 and has had numerous upgrades through the years.
The views show all of Wellington Harbor and the surrounding area. The Wellington Botanical Gardens are also at the top of this hill, just a few steps from where the cable car stops.
The gardens have many acres of beautiful old trees, native and exotic flowers, and educational exhibits.
The Rose Garden and Begonia House are a bit down the hill.
The Begonia House is home to wonderfully colorful groupings of plants from all over the world. We enjoyed the many flowers, pools, and hanging pots and then stopped in the cafe for a coffee before leaving the garden. All this and we still got back to our hotel in time to see the Eagles embarrass the Chiefs in the SuperBowl.
Feb11 was time to leave the North Island. We headed to Wellington airport and flew to Queenstown. More on this in the next post.