November 9, 2015 Wellington NZ

Here we are then, sitting in Wellington, capital city of New Zealand. Its coldish and rainy and windy. We only have a day, so we've gone to the Te Papa Tongarewa museum and gallery which is a shortish walk away, down by the quay.  A fuller interpretation of the name Te Papa Tongarewa is, ‘our container of treasured things and people that spring from Mother Earth here in New Zealand’.

On the way we saw this ultra trendy coffee bar with these wallies standing around sipping coffee as if it were rare and special wines. Just had to laugh.

Coffee sipping aficionados in Wellington NZ

Further down on the waterfront there is a playground with this unique lighthouse shaped slide...

Lighthouse kid's slide. Wellington NZ

and a display of the contenders for New Zealand's proposed new national flag:

Wellington NZ

Te Papa is a good place to spend an hour or so looking into natural history and both Maori and European history, certainly it was pretty busy.

Striking glass wall, Te Papa Tongarewa museum, Wellington NZ

From here we walked back up past the hotel, grabbed shorts and flip-flops as it was now clear and sunny, and took a ride on the cablecar. It runs from next to our hotel up to the top of the ridge. We checked out the cablecar museum at the top of the line and then walked back down the hill through the Botanic Gardens, a very pleasant place.

Cable car. Wellington NZ

View from top station. Cable car. Wellington NZ

Botanic gardens. Wellington NZ

Botanic gardens. Wellington NZ

Back here in the hotel, we are repacking a few things as we dump the car . and take the boat across the water to Picton and the South island. In total we drove 2075km around the North island, and could have done with a few more days to see one or two more things....