2016-03-07 – Wellington, New Zealand

Monday March 7, 2016 – We sailed at first light into the glorious harbour that is the Capital (since 1865; population 500,000) of New Zealand – Wellington, named after Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington the victor at the battle of Waterloo in 1815 and British Prime Minister from 1853 to 1865. Wellington has and has had many (Maori) names – Te Poneke (Port Nick as in Nicholas), Te Whanganui-a-Tara (the great port of Tara), but the most commonly accepted is Te Upoko-o-te-lka-a-Maui (the head of the Maori fish). This is part of the Maori legend that believes that the North island is the fish and the South Island is a canoe of the fisherman. Just in front of where we berthed the ship, is Westpac stadium (capacity 35,000) where the All Blacks Rugby team play (although their home base is in Auckland) as well as being used for cricket and other sporting and entertainment events.

Wellington is located at at the Southern end of the North Island and on the Cook Strait which separates North from South Island of New Zealand. By the way since we are in the Capital with all it’s politics, it should be noted that New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote in 1893. Also Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings trilogy) is from Wellington and still lives here. He was the neighbour of our bus driver on the tour who told us some interesting stories about growing up with him. Helen Clark a former Prime Minister from Wellington apparently has a good chance of becoming the next Secretary General of the United Nations. 

The first stop on the tour was at the top of Victoria Peak – a hill in the Center of town which gives one a magnificent view of the city and its bays. We were fortunate that the day was gorgeous as often it is very windy and one can experience “4 seasons in 1 day”! An interesting item to note is that Wellington was designed in England where they thought that the topography was flat, however the reality is that it is very hilly. Thus, not only does it have the main Cable Car for transporting people from lower to upper areas, but many (130 +) private houses have personal cable cars to get from the house to the road or to their garages! About 90% of all houses are made of wood and painted white. 

We then visited part of the botanical gardens known for its extensive area and wide variety of flora, but at the top is located  the station of the cable Car. We visited the section known as the Lady Norwood (wife of Sir Charles Norwood, former Mayor of Wellington) rose garden. It was established in 1953 and exhibits some 300+ cultivars of roses in 110 formal beds in concentric circles around a central fountain. Again a spectacular day and being late summer the roses were out in full blossom. I should mention that Tachy was not with Diana, Nelson and Roger as she was getting together with Linda an old friend from Toronto who has a commercial vineyard in New Zealand’s South Island and came over to Wellington for the day. We all met up for tea at the local Starbucks later on in the day.

A stop at the spectacular “Old St. Paul’s” church. After the mandatory external pictures, we went inside and were wowed  by the stained glass windows, arches and general structure, all done in wood, some to look like stone. A docent recounted the story of the church (which is now a historical society as the main St.Paul’s was re-built into a larger Cathederal a few blocks a away) built in 1866 in Gothic style and was used as the Cathederal of the diocese of Wellington for nearly 100 years. It can now be used for private events as a church.

Our final stop was at the Te Papa museum of New Zealand culture and history. An amazing place where we saw animals of the area as well as exhibit areas depicting Maori early culture, the time of the singing of the Treaty of Waitanga between the British and Maori, and life post treaty up to the present as part of the commonwealth of the U.K. From there we wandered along the waterfront and had a nice fish meal on the water, before walking into the town to do some shopping. We had sat for a breather to have a tea, when Tachy and Linda walked by and thus we met up and it was great to chat with Linda as she and Tachy have been friends for many decades. 

So ended the day in Wellington – an amazing place. The sail away was spectacular and we were intrigued by the fact that several jet skiers followed us out to the larger bay and even outside the bay into the open ocean. We could not figure this out until we turned on full power to head to Sydney, and then we saw the jet skiers jumping, literally out of the water, over our wake. They seemed to be having a grand old time until we got too far away along the Cook strait between the North and South islands.