New Zealand: Wellington

Finally! A day without travel!  We all slept in on Thursday morning and didn't get around to leaving the hotel until almost 11:00.  We ate at a great cafe near the hotel in downtown Wellington, The Verve Cafe, for brunch.  It was very yummy!  

The view out of the front of our hotel, the James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor 

The view from the back of the hotel

The weather forecast for the day looked questionable, but that didn't stop us from getting out and exploring once we were rested up and our bellies were full.  The first thing we wanted to check out was the Wellington Cable Car that has been running since the early 1900's.  The cable car runs from Lambton Quay (very close to our hotel) to the top of the hill looking over Wellington.   

Carter waiting for the cable car

Here it comes!

Meeting another cable car on our way up the hill

Getting higher.....

Look at that view from the top of the cable car line!!  

      This is the official photo that Sean took at the Kelburn Lookout (right next to where we got off the cable car).

We quickly looked through the cable car museum at the top and then began the downhill walking trail through the botanic gardens back toward the city center.  

Aubrey posing in one of the old school cable cars in the museum

We did have to make a couple of stops towards the beginning of the trail.  An observatory was located near the top, and it just happened to be named Carter Observatory.  Of course, Carter really wanted to go in.  No one else was terribly interested, so I went in with him while Sean, his parents, and Aubrey went to a huge playground located within the botanic gardens.  We went through the observatory in about 45 minutes and then joined them so that Carter got a little time to play on the playground also.  It was an amazing playground.  It even had Aubrey's favorite piece of playground equipment - a zip line.  

Looking down at the awesome playground

Aubrey on the zip line

This was the coolest merry go round!!

It took a little convincing, but we finally got the kids to leave the playground.  Right around the corner was the most stunning grouping of hydrangeas I have ever seen.  Absolutely gorgeous!!

Looking down on a field of hydrangeas

Some more beautiful landscapes within the garden....

Sean caught a bee getting pollen out of a flower

Aubrey loved the duck pond.  She told me that she wished she could be a little duckling.  We laughed quite a bit about a duck that was going around antagonizing the other ducks.  They would chase him away and then he would go speeding around the pond quacking hysterically with his wings flapping in the water.  It provided some really good entertainment.

The gazebo overlooking the duck pond

Another lovely pond with a waterfall

The finale of the botanic gardens was the rose garden.  It was beautiful.

When walking back into the city, we walked past a historic cemetery where the founders of Wellington now dwelled.  It was a good reminder of all the people that lived and died in this place hundreds of years ago.  It makes me think about what caused these people to leave their native land to travel thousands of miles by boat to start a life in a foreign land.  It certainly makes our 2 year stint in Australia look very, very small in comparison.

Once we were in the city again, we found a Starbucks not far from where our hotel is located.  We sat down to rest our feet a little bit and get a late afternoon caffeine boost to keep us going.  

Aubrey petting a dog statue on the streets of Wellington

Relaxing at Starbucks

We walked past the Parliament Buildings in Wellington (it is New Zealand's capital city).  The building on the right is known as The Beehive.

As we were determined to stay out of the car for the day, we walked to dinner at Heaven Pizza on Cuba Street.  When I looked Wellington up, prior to the trip, it described Cuba Street as being the coolest street in Wellington and that it had an alternative vibe.  The food at the restaurant was excellent.  As far as Cuba Street though, I wasn't all that impressed.  It does have a bohemian vibe, but it is a bit too run down for my liking.  I much preferred other areas of the city, like the wharf or Lambton Quay Street.  

The walking wasn't done yet.  From dinner, we walked about 15 minutes to the wharf area to go to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.  We were so lucky that our one night in Wellington was a Thursday since the museum stays open until 9 pm that one night of the week; otherwise it closes at 6 pm.  The name of the museum did not appeal to me - it sounded like a boring, stuffy museum.  We went on the suggestion from people that said it was fascinating.  I am so glad we listened to those people, because they were absolutely right.  The first floor was a science lesson about the natural environment, including the wildlife.  It was complete with the only intact specimen of a colossal squid in the world.  It also had an exhibit called "Awesome Forces" that talked about tectonic plates, earthquakes, volcanoes, etc.  It had a replica of a house that you could stand in while it replicates an earthquake.  The other floors went into the history of New Zealand as a country and about the native inhabitants of New Zealand, the Maori.  There were also some artwork displays.  And this was just all the free exhibits.  There were more exhibits that you would have to pay to enter.  However, it was already almost 9:00 pm, we were all getting pretty worn out, and we still needed to walk 20 minutes back to our hotel.  

Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa

The skeleton of a sperm whale overhead

The kids walking through a replica of a blue whale's heart

It is kind of hard to see, but this is the colossal squid specimen.  To get an idea of the size, look at the woman standing at the head.  It was massive!!

A Maori sculpture

The Britten V-1000 bike.  It was built in 1992 in Christchurch by John Britten in his backyard.  In 1993 it broke 4 world speed records (The standing start quarter mile, mile, kilometer  and the flying mile @ 302kpm (187+mph).

Views of Wellington from the top of museum

A DH82A Tiger Moth airplane suspended from the ceiling.  It was a big crop-duster during the '50s and '60s.

We accidentally took a roundabout route walking back to the hotel that evening.  We finally dragged ourselves into the hotel lobby around 9:30 pm.  What an exhausting day!  I have no idea what the total distance we walked was, but my feet were telling me that it was A LOT.  We were lucky that the weather finally worked with us instead of against us and it didn't rain all day.  We had a fantastic day in Wellington.

Graffiti art we saw while walking back to the hotel

Our break from traveling wouldn't last much longer though.  We were going to have to reconvene in the van the next morning and continue our journey northward.....

New Zealand: Christchurch to Wellington

We woke up extra early on Wednesday morning.  By 7:30 am we were already packed up and heading out of Christchurch.  We had a 4 1/2 hour drive to Picton to catch a ferry to the North Island.  What made it so difficult was that the boarding call to get on the ferry was 1:00 pm.  That doesn't leave a lot of extra room for stops.

We drove from Christchurch to Picton, where the red pin is, and then took the ferry to Wellington.

Photos from the road; we couldn't take the time to stop.

Cool, rustic tunnels.  Or, scary tunnels.  Depends on how claustrophobic you are.

We needed a pit stop about 2 1/2 hours out of Christchurch.  We saw signs that the next town was Kaikoura.  I instantly fell in love with this lovely town.  I am a person that is strongly guided by my intuition.  As soon as we drove into town, everything felt "right".  It had that beachy, bohemian feel that I love.  Yet, it did not feel run down like some beach towns do, but rather like everything was well kept up and maintained.  The water was gorgeous.  The beach was really nice, even though it was a darker, coarse sand texture and not a fine, white sand like Sydney beaches.  That is fine with me.  I don't always need to go lay out on the beach; I would be perfectly content to sit somewhere comfortable with a gorgeous view and a great book.  If I wasn't staring at the ocean, then I could look at the spectacular mountains surrounding the area.  I was genuinely sad because our stop here was so quick.  Maybe I had such a strong feeling because I was exhausted from all the driving and the beach looked so enticing on our first truly sunny day of the trip.  But, the group could have left me in that little town and I wouldn't have complained one bit.

The beach near Kaikoura.  Not too shabby.

Yep.  I could stay here awhile.

We rolled into Picton at 12:30, so plenty of time before the 1:00 pm boarding call for the ferry leaving at 2:00 pm.  We had to wait until around 1:30 to board and then we had free reign to roam the ferry.  It was a pretty large boat with about 10 levels, but passengers could only use about half of them.  We ate a late lunch once we boarded the boat and then Carter and Aubrey had fun exploring all the boat's nooks and crannies.  As expected, their favorite location was the kids' playground.  

From Picton, the ferry followed the dotted line to Wellington.

Chillin' on the ferry

Views as we left the South Island

There was even a magic show for the kids on the ferry!

The first part of the trip was smooth as the boat was navigating out of the sound.  However, the ferry got pretty rocky when it was on the open seas between the two islands.  My motion sickness was making me feel pretty rough, so I just zoned out, listened to my audiobook, and tried to watch the outside scenery for that portion of the trip.  Aubrey did really, really well.  She had a very short period that she felt sick, but it did not last very long and then she was completely fine.  We were all good once the boat got back into sheltered waters. 

Hello, North Island!

Our first glimpses of Wellington

On a side note, I was very anxious about Aubrey and her motion sickness before  starting this New Zealand trip.  She is extremely sensitive to small, curvy roads and it has been an issue with a lot of our other travels around Australia.  I knew New Zealand was going to be full of small, curvy roads.  Phenergan does help her and it is over the counter in Australia, but it makes her really drowsy and I did not want to medicate her with it for 9 days in a row.  

Right before we left, I purchased Aubrey a set of motion sickness wrist bands.  I thought they were kind of pricey for basically two elastic bands with little plastic balls in the middle.  The theory is that the plastic balls are placed in a specific position on her wrist to put pressure on the P6 acupuncture site.  This acupuncture site is supposed to help control nausea and vomiting.  I almost didn't do it because of the price and there is no good evidence based proof that they work.  On a whim, I went ahead and got them because I thought if they actually worked, they would be worth their weight in gold.  

Aubrey had two very minor bouts with motion sickness on the entire 9 day trip and she never threw up.  I gave her a small amount of medicine on the first couple days and before we took the ferry, but that was it.  Considering how rocky the ferry got, I don't think the Phenergan alone would have stopped her from being ill.  It was a miracle.  And, you can't claim it was a placebo effect because Aubrey is too young for that to be a factor.  The bracelets may not work for everyone, but I believe that they helped Aubrey on this trip.  And, yes, they were worth their weight in gold to us. 

The ferry was supposed to take about 3 1/2 hours, but it took a little longer thanks to another boat having technical difficulties and blocking the port in Wellington.  We were all starving by the time we got to Wellington since the food options on the boat were not that great.  We went down to the wharf area to eat dinner at a restaurant before we even checked into the hotel.  It was 7:00 pm by this time and there was a wait to get a seat at most restaurants.  We walked around a bit and ended up at Wagamama.  We had eaten at the chain Japanese restaurant once in Melbourne and really enjoyed it.  We had a great experience again and everyone in our party loved their meal.

The wharf area in Wellington

Walking along the wharf.  The buildings on the right were full of restaurants.

Some creative restrooms

We were ready to go check into the hotel after dinner.  The hotel was about a 15 minute walk from the wharf and the drive wasn't much shorter thanks to the small streets in the city center of Wellington.  Carter and I decided to burn some energy and walk to the hotel while everyone else drove.  Carter was pretty excited that we actually beat them to the hotel.  (We may have cheated and ran a little bit.)  We settled in for the night and looked forward to spending the entire next day in Wellington.  Wellington looked like a very small, walkable city.  That made me very happy because I did not even want to LOOK at that darn minivan for the next 36 hours.