Wellington

Wellington is notorious for its windy weather, and recently it had been quite wet and cool, with one of the worst summers on record. However, today there was not a cloud in the sky, and only a very gentle breeze.

The city experienced a moderately severe earthquake 4 months ago. Three buildings were casualties of this earthquake. The external walls of a newly built, very attractive, bank building swayed well during the quake, but unfortunately the internal floors did not. They became separated from the walls, and came crashing down. Luckily the quake occurred at midnight so no one was in the building at the time.

Secondly, a large multi storey car park collapsed, leading to a severe lack of parking in the central business district.

Large cruise ships used to dock at the near end of Aotea Quay, and there was a walkway leading into the central business district. Unfortunately the cruise terminal was the 3rd casualty of the earthquake, so now ships have to dock at the far end of the quay, near to the inter island ferry terminal, and you are no longer allowed to walk out of the port.

So when we disembarked there was no cruise terminal, or any other buildings passengers could use, but there was a free shuttle bus in to town.

Being huge Lord of the Rings fans we had chosen to go on the Weta Workshop and Lord of the Rings tour. It was only a 2½-hour tour, so we knew we wouldn’t see that much, but it was certainly worthwhile. The tour guides were very knowledgeable, and funny too. We drove along the waterfront to the Miramar Peninsular (which used to be an island until an earthquake raised the land between the island and the mainland, conveniently providing enough flat land to build the airport), and had a tour of the Weta Workshop, where the special effects for movies such as the Lord of the Rings, Avatar and District 9 were done.

Then we drove up to a viewpoint on Mount Victoria, where there is a spectacular view of the city and suburbs, and if you could see far enough you would see Antarctica, as there is no landmass between Wellington and Antarctica. The slopes of the hillside are very steep, but that hasn’t stopped people from building houses there, and some people have trams in order to get up or down to their houses from the road. Two things come to mind. How on earth do they move their furniture in to the house using the little tram, and is it really sensible to build on the side of a mountain in an earthquake prone area? The owners obviously have answers to these questions. The houses are very beautiful and have amazing views over the town and harbor.

Although most of the location filming of the Lord of the Rings movies was quite a distance from Wellington, and you can go there on a longer tour, we were able to see three locations that are very close by. Our guide, who had been a stunt double in the movies, had a card with photos of the locations, and we were able to stand and see exactly where each shot was filmed. He reenacted the scenes from the movie, and was very amusing.

He had an app that shows you recent earthquake activity in the 100 Km area surrounding you. Sure enough, one hour previously there had been a 4.5 one just less than 100 Km from where we were standing.

We went back to the ship after the tour, and then took the shuttle bus in to town. It is a short ride and the shuttle stop is right outside David Jones, a great department store. Very convenient.

We wandered down to Queen’s Quay and had lunch at the Crab Shack on the waterfront. The food was excellent, and when I asked our waiter, Tim, if he knew what was in the sauce of one of the dishes, he immediately returned with the list of ingredients. I will have to experiment with the quantities, but now I can make it at home. It really was delicious.

We walked up and down the waterfront, and made use of the free wifi. I finally found a dress to wear over my swimsuit, having searched for the perfect one since we were in Bermuda over 2 months ago.

The only disappointment was that the ice cream shop on the Quay didn’t have any chocolate ice cream. Now the Dairy Den on 2nd Street only had 3 flavors of ice cream, but one was chocolate. I cannot understand how any self respecting water front ice cream emporium with many other flavors readily available did not have chocolate. But it did not, so we moved on in search of another ice cream establishment. We never found one.

We also never had time to go to the Old Bank Arcade to look at the shops, or take the cable car from Lambton Quay up to the hilltop suburb of Kelburn, and then walk through the Botanic Gardens back to the central business district. As it was, we took the last shuttle bus back to the ship.

Synergy was playing again for the sail away. Sailing out of Wellington harbor is another amazing experience, you are surrounded by hills and mountains. When we said goodbye to our pilot and sailed out into the open ocean I did feel sad as this was our last port in New Zealand.

I have been so impressed with everything about New Zealand, even though the weather hasn’t been the best, and there was that issue with chocolate ice cream, I feel sorry to be leaving the country. I will have to come back to see the penguins.

I am very happy with our table for dinner. We are at a table for 6 by a window on the starboard side of the ship, deck 2. It is somewhat secluded and much quieter than the other tables we have had during this voyage. Our waiters are excellent – finding strawberries and ice cream when nothing else on the dessert menu takes our fancy.

Our tablemates are also great. Rita is delightful. It is her birthday tomorrow, but as her actual birthday is really the day after tomorrow because we are still the other side of the dateline, she wasn’t sure which day she should celebrate, but then decided that seeing as she is in her 80s she should celebrate both. Martin, the retired senior school headmaster, isn’t like any headmaster I have known. He is totally irreverent and very naughty. He makes me laugh. Deborah and Rod are lovely down to earth Australians who have lived all over Australia, and also in the Far East. They have also traveled the world, and have great tales to tell. Every evening is such a pleasure! It is amazing what a difference your tablemates can make to a trip.

There seem to be more and more tables for 2 in the dining room. Although you can chat with your neighbors, it really doesn’t seem to invite interactions, and good conversation is something I really enjoy when on board. People are fascinating, and I love hearing all about their adventures, and listening to their point of view on the world.