Wandering around town...

26-03-07

Weather report... Sunny and warm, cloudy and cool mid-morning then warming up again later. Noticeably cooler than Napier though.

Straight out the back door of the motel onto Cuba Street, apparently it's the "hip" street in Wellington. If felt more like a cross between Swindon high street and Covent Garden to me, lot's of little boutique shops, cafes and restaurants. A bit of retail therapy for Deb on the way down to the harbour side before going into Te Papa, the museum of NZ.

The museum is certainly worth a visit, certainly if you have children, as a lot of effort has putting into making it as educational as possible with activity areas dotted all around.

We then moved on to the major shopping street, Lambton Quay, for some more retail therapy for Deb. I don't think Deb was that impressed though, although I did manage to spend some money on a "beanie" hat ready for the colder climes of the South Island! As in keeping with the Kiwi's passion of walking there are loads of outdoor holiday type stores stocking everything you could need for an adventure holiday.

We found the cable car station (funincular railway) on Lambton Quay and took the ride up to the botanical gardens. The sun came back out for us here so we spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering up and down and around the gardens. A bit more shopping on the way back to the motel and then wash and brush up for the evening.

The city is very compact which means almost everything is reachable on foot, again clean, tidy and friendly service. It's very much a cosmopolitan city, with not a huge amount of history, so really 3/4 days would be enough to cover everything off after which you'd probably want to start venturing into the surrounding countryside.

As this was a cosmopolitan city we finished the evening with an Indian curry, in fact a very good curry.