Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, sits near the North Island’s southernmost point on the Cook Strait. A compact city, it encompasses a waterfront promenade, sandy beaches, a working harbour and colourful timber houses on surrounding hills. Strong winds through the Cook Strait give it the nickname "Windy Wellington." Even our taxi drivers declared it to be the windiest city on the planet. Pretty sure he's never been to Chicago.
What did we do?
Wellington Cable Car a must do when in Wellington. We took the 5-minute ride from the heart of the city centre, up through the hillside terraced houses of Kelburn, to the lookout perched high above the city. It has been in operation since 1902.
Next we did the Cable Car Museum
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| Grip Car 3 has been restored to look like it did in 1905 |
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| Wheels, ropes, & grippers |
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| Note the slanted seats. |
Our next stop was the Space Place at Carter Observatory.
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| The large telescope was made by Englishman Thomas Cooke, a teacher and scientific instrument maker with a fascination for navigation and astronomy. |
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| The Carter Observatory the previous name for Space Place - was literally constructed around this telescope which was installed on a massive concrete plinth. |
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| Analemmatic Sundial A person is used to produce the shadow by standing on the time-of-year marked on a figure elght in the centre of the ellipse |
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| It is accurate to within a few minutes and no corrections have to be made for daylight saving: because the bronze hour indlcators on the granite columns are moved twice a year |
We decided to walk back and enjoy the Wellington Botanical Gardens instead of taking the Cable Car back down.
Video
Lady Norwood Rose Garden
We stopped at Anderson Park and watched a little cricket 🏏.
The end of our jouney took us through the Bolton Street Cemetery.
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| 1840 - 1892 |
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is home to over two million objects across art, natural history, New Zealand histories, mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge), and Pacific cultures.
Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War
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| Bunker |
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| Mobile Phone |
Earthquake House
The earthquake aftermath
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| Kiwi Birds (the closest we got to seeing any) |
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| Colossal Squid 🐙 |
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| Creatures |
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| Ship's rations |
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| Te "Au o Tonga |
It is a huge museum definitely worth a visit and a great way to spend two rainy days!
Wellington Waterfront Walk
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| Who is under that umbrella |
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| Oh there I am |
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| Mermaid Silhouette at Chaffers Marina |
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| Solace in the Wind (The Naked Man) Statue |
Where did we eat?
By the time we arrived at the hotel and checked in, it was after 8pm and we missed the canapes and drinks in the hotel club lounge so we headed down to the Lobby Lounge for a quick bite.
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| Grass fed steak sliders & fries |
We had Club Lounge access where we enjoyed breakfast, afternoon tea, and twilight drinks and canapes. The lounge was very nice and semi formal.
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| Ham & cheese Pastry Blueberry scones with cream, Rockets, cheese & pastrami Egg & Mayo Date & nuts bar, Boysenberry sponge cake, hazelnut mousse |
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| Cappuccino |
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| Smorgasbord |
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| Tea Time |
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| Chicken avocado with mayo Tomato, pesto, mozzarella Salmon & chive Quiche Cheese puff Hazelnut Chocolate marscapon Mango mousse |
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| Meats, cheeses, & bread |
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| Frits & veggies |
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| Smorgasbord |
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| Cappuccino |
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| Eggs Benedict |
Where did we stay?
We chose InterContinental Wellington by IHG and used my points for free nights, woot woot.
How did we get there?
This was another part of the Tauranga clusterf**k. We took an Uber from the Clarence to the airport at 11:00 am which took about 10 minutes.
"What are we to do for over six hours", we asked? "You could go into town." We had literally just 'been there done that'. The airport is really small with nothing to do and only one place to eat, which was horrible 😫. Oh, remember I said there was another flight scheduled for the same time? I watched two pilots board the plane and it took off without any passengers.WTF!
My theory was only 3 people were booked on the flight ✈️ 😪 and they already knew the flight was going to be canceled, hence the other flight number without passengers, which makes no sense to me. There were also two young ladies flying to Christchurch and their flight was also canceled. All five of us were on the later flights. Fortunately, with all our traveling, incidents like this rarely happen.
When did we visit? March 6 - 10, 2026
Wellington turned out better than I expected. We would have enjoyed it better if it did not rain and wasn't so chilly. I know everyone back in the States (up north) were freezing. For the ladies or guys into shopping, there was no shortage of stores here.
"Without uncertainty, the adventure wouldn’t exist."
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