Walking In Wellington

On Saturday we had the whole day to explore Wellington itself. Unfortunately, one day is not enough time to see everything Wellington has to offer, but we tried!

First, we headed to Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand. Unfortunately, we were a little overloaded on New Zealand information, so we weren't able to give the attention to the museum that we had hoped. So we headed into the city itself.

Walking along, we found a really cool tea store. I loved the displays and took some pictures. If I ever come across a random assortment of china I know just how to showcase it now :)

Then we took the cable car to the top of the Botanical Gardens. The ride was pretty neat and we had some great views of the city to the harbour. And then of course we had the pleasure of walking back down to the city centre through the gardens. I've discovered, sadly, that April in New Zealand is not when their gardens are in their prime blooming season. You know, with it being Fall and all, most of the flowers are past their prime.

An entire valley of hydrangeas which was a-m-a-z-i-n-g!!! 

After we reached the city centre again, Dave willingly undertook a twenty five minute trek across the city to find Martha's Pantry. I had read about this tea room in our guide book and my experience there far exceeded my hopes and dreams. I wish I had something similar to this much closer to home. (Janice, do you know of anything???)

The tea and scone with jam and cream were amazing but I especially loved my fancy hat! (And please ignore the horrible cold sore on my upper lip. It's healing nicely but pretty prominent in these pictures. Unless I can somehow convince you that it's a spot of jam which might not be any better!)

After our experience at Martha's Pantry, we walked back to our hosts' apartment, heading down Cuba Street and perusing the menus at various restaurants, trying to find a place to eat supper that night. After about half an hour of walking and perusing menus, we ended up going somewhere completely different with Donny and Marika. So much for all our hard work. Ha!

That night we headed to our hosts' second home, on the coast about an hour north of Wellington. Before that though, we had some excitement when our car wouldn't start. Donny and Marika stayed with Lorna, their friend's mom, waiting for the local car assistance to show up, while Jim, Dave, and I drove to the other house and got settled in.

*To read about Days 10 and 11, go here.