Wellington, New Zealand
Buongiorno Signori e Signore, yes it has been several days since the last posting. Fortunately, it is with a great deal happiness we can say, Non c’è male. “Nothing is bad.” We have just been very busy.
Let’s see if we can catch you up. We’ll write day by day, rather than try to fit it all in one blog update. Today, February 26, we arrived in Wellington, New Zealand at 09:00. Cruise ship berthing is about a mile and a half northwest of central downtown along Aotea Quay. Regent is supplying a shuttle bus to and from downtown each half hour.
Our excursion this morning begins at 09:30 with the meeting in the Constellation Theater to exchange tickets for bus numbers. Things appear to be running a little late when we get there but that is generally normal when we pull into port so close to the tour departure time. It really doesn’t matter, all aboard is 16:30 as we depart for Australia at 17:00.
The excursion this morning is entitles Wellington City Sights. Our driver is also our guide today. The excursion finally goes underway after it has gone 10:00. We start south towards the central district riding along Oriental Bay. The very first thing we pass is the Sky Stadium. It isn’t much a stadium by American Standards; it only seats 34,500 guests. It is the home of the famous New Zealand National All Blacks union rugby team.
The multi-purpose Sky Stadium as serves other events and sports teams. It is the home of Wellington Lions Mitre 10 Cup rugby team and the Hurricanes Super Rugby team. The Wellington Phoenix FC, and the New Zealand Men’s national football team (the All Whites) play football here, or for Americans soccer. The 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification match was played here.
Cricket is also played here. Concerts by The Rolling Stones (2006) and AC/DC (2010) just to name a few. There were a lot other, and yes the names were familiar but listing them all serves no purpose. The point of all of this is that you don’t need a 100,000 plus stadium to be profitable here, unlike America where it is necessary. Of course there are just about six million people in New Zealand and about a quarter million in Wellington, New Zealand third largest city.
We leave Sky Stadium and the central port district behind and enter the busy city center. It is Monday and a work day so there are quite a few people out and about. Now that we are out of the working port we see a collection of Victorian buildings and modern buildings. Although here they call them colonial buildings rather than Victorian. Perhaps it is more accurate.
We crawl along the street hugging the coast. The drive is one minutes picturesque, the industrial, then the beautiful Oriental Beach, then train tracks, just about then we turn and start up Mount Victoria. Mount Victoria or Matairangi is “only” a 643 foot hill to the southeast of Victoria. However, it is the highest place around and has served as a Māori pā (fortified village settlement) and later military uses before becoming a park in 1880. The views of Wellington and the bay are breath taking, and the view is literally a 360 panoramic view of the Wellington area.
The decent from Mount Victoria takes us through local neighborhoods and small local shopping districts. We also pass the Wellington Botanical Garden, the Lady Norwood Rose Garden and Begonia House. There is a rather steep path that many people jog along through the narrow valley in which the botanical garden is. It would be very beautiful. Apparently one German couple from the cruise decided to walk down from Mount Victoria through the botanical garden. Still trying to find out if they made it back in time.
We reentered the central business district and rode along one of the main shopping streets the Lambton Quay. The driver stopped mid-city, to let us out to ride the cable car from the seaside business district up the hill to the suburb of Kelburn. We have seen that the coast line of New Zealand generally consists of fairly high cliffs above a narrow beach. Such is that layout in Wellington. Kelburn is about 410 feet above downtown Wellington. In 1900 Martin Kennedy, a successful Wellington business man persuaded the Upland Estate Company to include the cable car in its plans for Kelburn.
The cable car had been operating since 1902. This funicular railway ascends from Lambton Quay and the central business district up to the fashionable suburb. At the top of the line is the Victoria University of Wellington, several category 1 listed historical buildings, cafes, restaurants and pubs. The Wellington Cable Car Museum is here also.
We had a hot chocolate at the small bar restaurant at the top, visited the museum and took in the sweeping views of the city below from the terrace. The driver brought the bus to the top of the hill were we reboarded and headed back into the central business district. The last stop on the excursion was Old St. Paul's Church. Although it is apparently one of New Zealand's finest examples of Colonial Gothic architecture, we decided to jump ship, so to speak, and head into the downtown for lunch. The driver was nice enough to point out where the shuttle bus stopped to take us back to the ship.
We walked though the area taking in all the various restaurants and small local eateries. We decided against anything which looked like a chain, or anything American, like the Burger King or McDonalds. We looked on Trip Advisor and found something that looked great. Headed in the direction but without street names on the buildings even google maps was confused. Eventually we stopped and looked at several menus before deciding to stop at a bar and restaurant called the Featherstone City Tavern.
The meal started with two spring rolls with chili sauce. They were spicy and wonderful. The chicken, ham and sweet corn Yorkshire pudding pie enticed me. Mary choose the yorkshires with mashed potatoes, braised steak and peas. We do love Yorkshire pudding. The fillings were hot and very tasty. It was nice to get something a little different, and something with a lot of flavor.
We were safely back on board before the 16:30 cut off time. Wellington is a lovely city and might be interesting to explore more. In fact all of New Zealand might be interesting to explore more. We really visited on one of the two main islands of New Zealand. We didn’t even touch South Island.
We skipped dinner because of the large lunch. The next two days are at sea so plenty of time to rest up. Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico.
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