Our second port in New Zealand this cruise was Wellington, the capital. Wellington is known as "Windy Wellington" because the wind gets funneled down Cook Strait between the North and South Islands and hardly ever stops blowing. The sign on the hill near the airport tells how the locals see it, look close and you will too. We had a magnificent guide for our day in Wellington. Robbie took us around the city and bays showing us stuff that we didn't have a chance of seeing last time. We started by visiting two of the most unusual buildings. The one at the top is called the Beehive by locals. It is in fact the parliamentary office building. Parliament House is under renovation next door. The building on the bottom is the Old Government Building. It looks like it is made of stone, but is the largest wooden building in the southern hemisphere. It was built in 1876 to be the offices of the NZ civil service. Today it is Law School of the University of Wellington. Even close up, you find it hard to believe that it is actually all wood. The other interesting thing in the photo is the electric trolleybus. These have been in use in Wellington since 1924, but are due to be phased out shortly. I think they are an interesting idea. After looking at buildings (more photos to come), Robbie drove us up to the top of Mt Victoria. There are a couple of lookout points there which give spectacular views of the city. You may be able to see Voyager of the Seas in the background. It was very windy up there and the Oldies wouldn't let me loose to climb on anything.
Labels: boats, buildings, cruising, New Zealand
# posted by Bart Bear @ 5:28 pm
