Wandering in Wellington

Day 2 and the weather is fine and dandy!
The morning starts with a stroll down Cuba street to the information centre for some tourist knowledge and a framework for our day ahead - The streets are a bustle of morning commuters and tourists as there is a big cruise ship in town and Wellington is alive! With the necessary tourist brochures a quick stop off at a local mobile phone carrier for a travel sim …..easy and inexpensive a far cry for what Optus want to gouge out of us!
Our first tourist stop is the Museum of New Zealand an impressive building with 3

Levels of Musuem and 2 levels of an art exhibition. The museum part is split into 3 areas first is the Anzacs Memorial and as is the case in Australia this is very much revered here in NZ, the detail and stunning display is moving and quite disturbing depicting the horrendous struggle and futility of War.
Moving up to the next exhibit which is based on the nature in NZ with an abundant bird life and unsettled Geographical lands a lot happens in this Islands country, interestingly Lake Taupo was formed from a massive volcano explosion forming a huge indentation several kilometres deep and filling with water the size of the lake approx 160km in circumference - mighty big!
The next part of the exhibition is the people of NZ which surprisingly is historically shorter than I thought with the Mauri arriving from the Northen Pacific Isles around 700 to 800 odd years ago and Europeans arriving 250 years ago - I guess the location and

harshness of the weather were factors in its isolation early on.
Moving onto the Art exhibitions and it’s very much “Art is in the eye of the beholder”
With a plain black painted piece of art on display and some interesting objects of art one can say each to their own. Although a little “out there” the gallery was to say the least interesting!
With the Museum done we opt for some brunch and e scooter ride around the spectacular waterfront before heading up the cable car ride to the top to the botanical gardens. We tour the Cable car museum which is very interesting and worthy to note they have been running the cable cars since the early 1900s with original cars running up until the early 1970s before an upgrade over the next couple of decades - a worthwhile trip up. The views are absolutely spectacular from the top looking back down to Wellington and the beautiful waterways and distant mountains and with such a clear and glorious

day a sight to behold. The botanical gardens are up here as well and a stroll down to the city a possibility but with a sore foot it was a short walk to the observatory and then back down via the cable car.
Back down in Wellington city centre we are in the “Designer Store” end of town and we venture across to the Museum of Wellington which is more local in its exhibition displaying the growth and settlement of Wellington and some of its major happenings including the ferry disaster from the late 1960s and pertinent people and changing times from the local history - worth a visit.
With a full day we stroll back to our hotel through Cuba street which is really the heartbeat of Wellington with its hip, grunge and earthy shops and people, a mix of licorice all sorts and has a real rawness about it which is kinda confronting and kinda cool. its how places should be real and local.
With a relaxing ale and some chill time we head down for some

dinner at the Local Irish pub - Melissa opts for vegetarian lasagne and for mine it’s a pork rib eye and a Murphy stout followed by a walk around our digs and an ice cream stop for missy and another day in the Shaky ilses is had