WELLINGTON
Approaching Wellington, looks quite small for a capital city, was made the capital based on its location[/caption]
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The inner harbour ,about a 10 km walk from one end to the other[/caption]
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This poor guy was doing his exercises ,and TRISH decided to push him in[/caption]
WINDY WELLIE (WELLINGTON)
Our journey to Wellington started early with the coach leaving at 7.00am for a 6 hour journey to Picton, followed by a 3.5 hour ferry ride over to Wellington.
This luxury bus took us through to the north side of the South Island driving along the coast road stopping at various quaint seaside towns for a leg stretch and a cup of coffee. The most interesting town was Kaikoura. This was about 200 kilometers from Christchurch. After walking around we thought how nicet it would have been to have stayed a few days. I just saw it lists as number 4 in places to visit in New Zealand.
The bus was superb, comfortable seats, free wifi and reasonably priced and came with a comedian bus driver!!! He kept us entertained the whole ride The scenery all the way was breathtakingly amazing.
The fjords for the first 1.5 hours on the ferry ride on the Queen Charlotte Sound was quite stunning and worth the trip. Also, when we arrived into Wellington we could walk to the hotel, which was a bonus. We stayed at the Ibis Hotel. The best Ibis we have stayed in so far.
We spent most of our time walking. We walked all around town and the harbor. Up to the top of Mount Victoria for a 360 deg view and back down again with wobbly knees!!! 200 meters high in a short space. Also took the cable car to the top of the Botanic Gardens and walked all the way down through the gardens. Walked all along the coastline from bay to bay. We found that the food and wine in the supermarket was so well presented and cheap but eating out was outrageously expensive.
The population of Wellington is about 400,000 and is also the capital of New Zealand with all the government buildings here. Generally from our point of view we thought the people were dowdy and generally have been left behind the times compared to other cities. But then what do we know!!! The place was full of back packers all looking for a cheap deal at the food stalls.
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My beautiful rose amongst the flowers in the botanical gardens[/caption]
We also took a ferry ride to East Bourne. Again price was extortionate compared to Sydney’s ferry ride to Manly Beach, which was twice as far. The beach was not as good as Australia’s beaches and the water was 10 deg colder which didn’t seem to bother the hardy New Zealander’s.
5 days was 2 days too long.
Early rise tomorrow as we board the Northern Explorer to Auckland.
Later
M & T
Please excuse pictures upside down I have no control
