Cable Cars, Sundials, and Temperamental Weather

08Jul08
Wellington

Today we went into Wellington again mainly to see the botanical gardens. We took the historic cable car uphill – sitting across from a friendly woman and her two daughters. At the top we stopped for a coffee and snack at a cafe (carrot cake) and enjoyed the great views of the city and the harbor. We visited the cable car museum - my favorite was the antique cable car that had slanted seats thus creating level seats when on the steep incline.





Then we meandered our way downhill through the large park stopping at several attractions – an old observatory, an Australian desert garden, a human sundial,


(Justin telling time or praying to the gods of astronomy - you decide!)

a rare NZ plants garden, a section of native forest, a cacti and succulent garden, a “tornado” sculpture, and finally the Victorian hothouse.



This is a really nice park and since we had fairly good weather it was full of people and kids. Very cheery.

Then we made our way back to downtown, via the government district and drove back to Moana Lodge for the night.

During dinner we talked to a couple girls who were traveling together about things to see in NZ and Southeast Asia. One was from Ireland, and the other from Corpus Christi! Haha... although the Texan girl was trying very hard to affect a kiwi accent and did not seem very happy to talk about our mutual Texas connection. They had a very funny story about zorbing in Rotorua. For those of you not in the know, zorbing is a kiwi-invented adventure sport where you climb inside a huge inflatable ball and get rolled down a hill inside it. To make it more exciting they put some water inside the zorb to splash around with you. Well when the Irish girl was ready for her turn, the supposedly warm water turned out to be freezing cold and she was literally blue when she climbing out of the zorb at the bottom of the hill! Brr!
I must confess, that I really, REALLY wanted to go zorbing while we were here – but we were so turned off by Rotorua that I didn't. Plus it's expensive :(


09Jul08
Plimmerton

On this blustery day we explored the coast north of Plimmerton a little, until we got driven home by the bad weather. For lunch we had tasty fish and chips (or as the Brits say “had a chippie”) at MacLean Street Fish Supply in Paraparaumu. It was takeaway and we ate at a picnic table overlooking the sea (with lots of “friendly” seagulls). Afterwards we headed out to the Queen Elizabeth park on the coast and took a short walk. By then the nice day had turned cold and cloudy so it was back to the hostel to get everything prepared for leaving tomorrow. And by sunset, the clouds had cleared again and we were able to go for one last walk along the beachfront in Plimmerton.



Wellington photoset