Wellington Harbor
New Zealand Days 6 & 7
We spent the entire day exploring the city of Wellington. And apparently we got really lucky because the weather usually very windy there but we got hardly any wind and lots of beautiful sunshine.
We met up with Marjie’s cousin who is also named Claire for breakfast and then she showed us around the city for the rest of the day. We went to Weta Cave where numerous famous movies are produced including the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Next we went up to the top of Mount Victoria and got a beautiful view of the city, much better in my opinion than Mt Eden in Auckland. But it was also way nicer weather too. We could see the entire city from atop the mountain and some buildings were more obvious than others such as the rugby stadium. There is also a forest atop Mt Victoria where they shot the scene in Fellowship of the Ring where the hobbits are escaping from the shire and hiding from the ringwraiths.
We went to a kebab restaurant for lunch. I was confused at first by what a kebab was because I always just thought of shish kebabs. But kebabs are basically hot wraps and very tasty.
After lunch we went for a walk around the harbor and got some ice cream. Still amazed by the beauty of New Zealand. We also got to see the university campus that Claire studies at, Victoria University of Wellington I believe.
And what a way to have a last dinner in New Zealand! We went out to dinner with Claire and her parents to a very tasty restaurant. It was nice to be able to meet them and to learn more about the differences in New Zealand and American cultures. Plus the dinner was outstanding.
The next day our flight left at 3PM so we had some time in the morning but not enough time to really do anything special. We looked around for the botanic gardens but then our hunger overcame our curiosity and we drove to Porirua and breakfast at a small bakery before heading off to a museum in Porirua with an interesting money exhibit. Afterwards, we dropped off the rental car, went to the airport and said goodbye to New Zealand. But hey, it didn’t seem too sad because we were going back to Australia.
