Wellington, Day 1

On Sunday we spent a lot of the morning at Laura and John's home, eating a yummy breakfast, chatting, and visiting Laura's art studio. We finally got organized to go into Wellington, where we went directly to the "i site" office. It has taken us several days to catch on to the fact that every town of any size has one of these tourist information offices. They are fantastic, with well-trained advisors, tons of free maps and guide books, suggestions about what to see, and great resources to solve any problems or answer any questions. We usually go in with a long list of them! They also nearly always offer free wifi, souvenir shopping, and some even have cafés. How we wish we had been smart enough to find these in the first couple of days here when we seem to have specialized in being lost!


They sent us first to ride a cable car up to the top of a mountain for a sparkling view of this gorgeous city spread out below. W'ton nestles between mountains and a magnificent harbor where the water is truly turquoise. Socks knocked off officially in that moment. The other fabulous part is that this is a small, walkable city. At the top of the cable car you get out in the Botanical Gardens, where a long, winding walk downhill takes you through all the sections of the garden, then deposits you right in downtown Wellington. This particular Sunday afternoon was warm and sunny, and people were out enjoying the gardens and the bright displays of poppies and tulips, all in full spring bloom.









We wandered through the city and ended up on Cuba Street, a favorite hangout area for the young and hip (I know, I know, a bit ironic). We ate dinner at a lively place named Fidel, where we ordered lots of small dishes to share. Finally back to our land yacht for a good sleep.




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Location:Wellington, NZ