Wellington

Thursday, February 10
What a beautiful city Wellington is.  Our favorite place - so far!
The first thing we did, on the advice of our friend Peter Slowik, was drive to the Victoria Lookout where we could see the entire Wellington area.  It was quite windy there, and Wellington is perpetually windy, sitting on Cook Strait between the North and South Islands.  There is an Admiral Byrd memorial there which points to the South Pole.  If you flew south from New Zealand, the next stop would be Antarctica!

Driving up and down the narrow, windy, steep road was an adventure in itself, with cars parked everywhere and never knowing whether a tour bus would be coming at you just around the next bend.  We drove downtown then and parked in a garage. (Big mistake - cost $20 to get out after only two hours!)  Walked to the cable car terminus and rode it up the hill to the Botanic Gardens.  Great show in an Imax type theater in the Planetarium about the origins of the universe, a segment on training to be an astronaut, and displays of the southern sky at night, how to find the Southern Cross and other constellations.

The Botanic Gardens were gorgeous!  All sorts of flowers, trees, a Kodak moment around each bend in the pathway.  (I haven't uploaded my latest batch of pictures from my camera yet.  I'll catch up on pictures tomorrow.)  Then another wonderful lunch in the Lady Norwood Rose Garden.  By the time we got to the Te Papa Museum it was three o'clock, so we only had about three hours there.  This is the best museum I have ever visited.  We could have spent a couple days just in the museum.  We are museum people, but even if we weren't, we would have loved this one.  Every display is full of movement, color, and very interactive.  It also has many hands-on activities for children.  There was a lot of information about the Maori culture, the origins of New Zealand, as well as special exhibits of art and photography.  I wish we had more time there.

We ate dinner at the Hippopotamus restaurant in our Museum Hotel.  I told Karen I knew I would feel at home there because I'm beginning to look like a hippo from all the good food.  It was a French restaurant, which of course means small portions at exorbitant prices.  We had wonderful Chateaubriand for 2, with a salmon sushi appetizer.  I tried an Otago region Amisfield Pinot Noir - great!  I'll wax enthusiastic about New Zealand wines in a future post.  Up early tomorrow to catch the ferry to the South Island.