We were off the ship soon after we were cleared, around 8:15. We grabbed a taxi to take a 2 hour tour around the city of Wellington. Our 2 hours turned into just over 3, but it was well worth it.
Wellington is the capitol if New Zealand and almost the first buildings we saw were the Beehive (nickname for a round government building) and the Parliament building. From there we drove thru the Botanical Gardens, then up to a peak where we had a 360 view of the area. It was about 70 degrees out and beautiful sunshine. Nice day and nice city! There were a lot of old Victorian homes as well as craftsman style. There were huge ones and communities with smaller ones. There were more hills than San Francisco and we wound around to different areas. We went to a Souvenir Factory Outlet which was kind of funny. We say many things that we had already bought in other cities, for a bit less. Our driver pointed out some buildings that had something to do with the filming of Lord of the Rings, like where the actors stayed, where the editing was done, etc. We then stopped at a store called Weta Cave.
It was the Studio store! They had many artifacts from the Hobbit films as well as models. I purchased a couple of signed books, one on film locations in New Zealand. I also got close and personal with Gollum. Creepy little guy. They had a model of Jane from Jane and the Dragon. I found that show while swimming in our pool at home. We have very limited TV since there is no cable there. The animation is beautiful. I didn't know it was from New Zealand. We then headed to the shore drive, where we saw some beautiful "beach" houses. One house looked just like a lighthouse. Probably had just one room on each of it's 3 floors. It was cute but not very livable! We passed by the airport then headed to an area where I thought there was a quilt shop.
The driver got out to ask about the quilt shop whose address I'd found online. They hadn't been there for about 20 years! Wonder how they ended up online. There was, however, a very nice quilt shop just up the street so we went there. They had some very nice New Zealand themed fabric, so I was happy. We then went back to the ship to drop off our packages and have lunch.
About 12:30 we headed out again, this time using the free shuttle into the City Centre. We got off the bus and asked directions to the Te Papa, the National Museum. It was a nice walk along the bay with many runners and strollers and even a swimmer. That water must have been cold. The museum was quite large. It had some interesting exhibits, but it they didn't seem to flow
right, you had to backtrack to continue on to a new area. We did enjoy seeing more S Pacific art. After that we returned to the shuttle area and headed in the opposite direction to the Parliament Building. Mel wanted to go it. They gave free tours but they were an hour long and by this time it was 4. The last shuttle was leaving for the ship at 5, cutting it a bit too close. We walked back to the shuttle and were onboard by 4:30.
The port was full of logs. After the depression, New Zealand had people out planting pine trees, imported from CA, to put them to work. The trees grow twice as fast in NZ as they do in CA, so a new industry was created. Lumber is one of their largest exports. But they don't just cut it, they are still planting. One of our guides told us that they actually plant more trees every year than they cut, making the "greenies" happy. There are huge pine forests everywhere. New Zealand is very environmentally friendly.
The Capt announced that we would be leaving the bay via an island on the other side. It was more scenic to go that way. The harbor is almost circular with a small opening out to the sea. It was a beautiful sail away.
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