What a beautiful place. We did a walking tour around Wellington, starting at the iSite and after a walk around, we headed up the hill by cable car and wandered down again through the Botanical Gardens. Again, I was up early to get through my work, before heading off to look around, and then finished up working later in the afternoon.
We arrived in Wellington at about 8am this morning. We had a walking tour booked for 9.30, so jumped on a shuttle bus that the cruise line runs to get passengers from the port into the city. We met up with our tour guide, Robin and another couple who were doing the tour who are from Canada. We headed off and Robin showed us the city square, the art centre and where the waterline once was. Apparently, there was a big earthquake that pushed up rocky mounds in the water. The locals came down from the hills and slowly filled in all the cracks between these rocky mounds with rocks, and built on the area. So, there’s a plaque where the waterline once was. There’s also a beautiful shopping mall which was purchased by a Singapore businessperson for $1 on the condition that it be restored. It was and looks amazing. On the bottom floor, there is the hull of a ship. Traders used to have to bring their wares ashore by tender, and this guy rammed his ship into the shore, allowing traders to pull up to the ship to offload their goods. He later built on top of the ship and it eventually became this shopping centre.
We walked to the cable car and caught that to the top and had a look at the cable car museum. Then, we wandered down through the botanical gardens, stopping to see the astrological society buildings, the native trees and beautiful gardens. Our guide pointed out so many trees and plants that were interesting, even to me.
Once at the base of the hill, we headed for a pub and had a drink.
Now, we are sailing out of windy Wellington and heading for Picton. We’ve been sitting on our balcony, me with a cup of tea, enjoying the long trip out of the harbour.
