Wellington NZ February 22, 2012

The ship is greeted by ten jet-skiers this early morning on arrival in Oriental Bay, the main harbor of Wellington, which is the capital city of New Zealand.  The weather is cool and clouds are rolling in.  By the time we get off the ship, it’s raining.  We are docked by the sea container docks, right in the downtown commercial, retail and financial area of Wellington.  There are stacks of pine logs waiting to be placed on a container ship and taken off to various Asian countries. We learn that native California pine trees grow twice as fast here as California.  This also explains the huge begonia flowers we see later at the Botanic Garden.

A “highlights” tour takes us all over the city area.  Wellington is situated on very hilly, near-mountainous terrain, and little was done to disturb the natural rise and fall of the land as the city expanded. The road hugs the water as we peer out the rainy bus window during the early portion of the tour. The houses that sit high on the hillside to our right are actually built up there with no roads to them. The garages are along the roadside and there are both very long staircases and paths, and in some cases private cog-cable car systems, leading to their homes.  There are bicycle and pedestrian paths everywhere along the water front.



Wellington NZ

Wellington consists of beautifully distinct neighborhoods, each with a unique character.  They have an “old-but-maintained” feel, similar to San Francisco and Geneva neighborhoods. Intense land use is the rule here, with architecturally diverse commercial and residential structures nestled in and designed for where they will fit, yet the city does not have a crowded feel.



Steve & Friend

Peter Jackson Studios is located in a suburb near the airport, a short drive from Wellington city centre. The Hobbit is currently being filmed there. As the bus takes us by the studios, we can barely make out the green screen outdoors, behind the fences that are keeping nosey people out. 

Mt. Victoria is the highest hill in Wellington. The bus navigates the narrow winding roads to the lookout on top.  Through a tunnel and then along the steep roadway up, we are told that the scene in the Lord of the Rings, where Frodo and friends hide on the side of the road from the black horse riders, was filmed in this park area. The huge trees do seem familiar. There is a fantastic view of the city, harbor and surrounding mountains at the top of Mt. Victoria. 



Old St. Paul Church

Many of the buildings and houses are made of wood in New Zealand, originally because of its ubiquity, now because of the threat of earthquakes. The people learned that it would be a good idea after an earthquake hit in 1855. This earthquake destroyed stone buildings (while many wooden buildings survived) and elevated the sea floor where the airport and much of present-day Wellington are built.  We also make a stop at Old St. Paul’s, a small, beautiful Anglican Church built in 1866 and being preserved as one of the few gothic-style wooden churches in the world.

Ships Maori Traveled to NZ

Representative Maori Chief House

The last stop on the tour is to the Te Papa Museum.  This amazing place is the national historical museum of New Zealand.  We are given a one-hour “quickie” tour by a delightfully animated guide and learn much in that short amount of time.  There is also one minute of silence observed for the 165 people who died one year ago today, at 12:51 pm, when the earthquake struck Christchurch, NZ.  Flags are at half-mast today in memory of this sad event.

The city is very nice, clean and easy to get around.  We are sure that if the weather had been nicer, we could better appreciate the beautiful trees and mountainous scenery surrounding the city.  Sailing away, more of the mountains are visible as is a quaint lighthouse at the start of Cook Strait.

After sail-away and dinner, we see a Maori culture show in the ship’s theatre performed by an accomplished New Zealand dance group, Te Oranga Ake.  They perform the traditional dances and include the hair-raising haka made famous by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team.

We now leave the North Island of New Zealand and are on a journey to the South Island to visit the city of Dunedin and on the way.  The Captain says he will search the bays and estuaries for whales, albatross and penguins and let us know of sightings.

Cruise Musing:  For Lent, Steve says he is giving up getting angry at people who can’t seem to get back to the bus on time during tour stops.