ST. TRAVELS

Wellington is similar to a small San Francisco; it sits on a bay, has lots of hills, a cable car, electric buses, is rather windy, is about the same latitude (but in the Southern Hemisphere), and has occasional earthquakes.  

We spent two nights in a restored classic Victorian house in Jan’s AirB&b.  Our bedroom was in the front bedroom with the bay window, as you can see in this photo.  

Located at the base of Mount Victoria, it was an easy 20 minute walk to museums, the waterfront, and most things in downtown.  And we walked and walked and walked to explore this city! According to my Apple Watch, on Friday, we walked ten miles and 15,000 steps. 

Our first stop was The Great War Exhibition at the National War Memorial for WW1.  This museum told the story of how the war started, the involvement of the nations, and the details of warfare.  

The producer of the Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson, led the effort to build this exhibit, and the detail was incredible: life-size men, horses, tanks, buses, and airplanes spotting each room.  It was a chance to remember the tinder-box nervousness of nations on the brink of war, how war became mechanized, and how our own President Wilson was faced with a divided nation with multiple opinions of nationalism.  

Our second stop was the Te Papa museum (the Museum of New Zealand) where we saw the Gallipoli War Exhibit.  Again, it was Peter Jackson’s magical skills that were used to create the story of the war told from the perspective of letters to home from a half dozen individuals who documented the days and misery of war.  The figures were 5X scale (see pic of Ted looking up to the kneeling man) making the story bigger than life.  

We took another walk for lunch to Ekim’s Burger (Mike spelled backwards) that was recommended to us by a Fremont HS grad. The burgers were yummy, but the sauce on the potato wedges was great – a mixture of BBQ and Chili sauce.  You can also see in the pic, another fine part of lunch: Sue’s strawberry milkshake (and for extra points, a Kiwi photobomber)!

 Our fourth long walk was to the cable car that climbs to the top of the hill to the botanical gardens. 

Sue’s photo provides a wonderful view of Wellington for you to see.  In most pictures in our blogs, you can click on it to see a better quality and larger sizes.  

All in all, Windy Welly (as the locals refer to Wellington) was a delightful stay.  As I write this, we are at the airport waiting for a short flight to Nelson at the top of the South Island where we will stay in a lodge in the Abel Tasman National Park!