Wellington Cable Car – Dave and Kay's Travel Adventures

Friday, February 21

Today began with visiting Zealandia. We had an excellent docent who took us through the park. Zealandia is an urban ecosanctuary that is completely fenced and encompasses 560 acres. There are many native New Zealand animals, trees, and plants that we were able to see. When New Zealand was inhabited by the Europeans in the 1800s, this area that is now the western slope of Zealandia was not good farmland for the settlers so it was left to become a forest again. The eastern slope still has remains of farming and human impact but slowly plant species have returned thanks to the ecosanctuary.

We walked through the Cable Car museum.

Our group leader is demonstrating where he would sit as a kid.

At lunch we had the opportunity to drink the Taha Tonic drink. Taha is made from natural ginger, manuka honey and pure New Zealand water. It was delicious!

This afternoon we had a guided visit to Te Papa Tongarewa: Museum of New Zealand. On our walk to the museum we saw many sayings and poems along the Wellington Writers Walk along the harbour.

After our tour we had some free time to explore the museum on our own. Below is a slideshow of some of the exhibits that we visited with our guide!

Base Isolation system quake braker that is being used under the building
Base Isolation system quake braker
Moa Egg
Colossal Squid
Colossal Squid close up
The Treaty of Waitangi

On our own we went into the special exhibit: Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War. It tells the story of the Gallipoli campaign during WWI. It tells the story through eight New Zealanders eyes during this time. The giant sculptures are 2.4 times human size. This exhibit was well done and very emotional.

We also stopped in the Earthquake House to experience a simulation. Where we live, the chance of a high magnitude quake is slim.

We left the museum and walked over to the Wellington Museum.

We didn’t have much time before the museum closed so we focused the majority of our time going through the special exhibit: Suffrage in Stitches. This textile work was created for the 125th anniversary year of the women’s suffrage in New Zealand. Its length is the same as the original petition and it consists of 546 individually fabric panels that were designed and tell the stories of those that signed the petition or relatives that influenced the 546 makers of the panels.

Thursday, February 20th

Our day began with a walk to New Zealand’s parliament buildings in Wellington. We had a docent who led us on a tour. No photos are allowed inside the buildings. The pictures I have are from our walk and outside the buildings.

The crosswalk signal is Kate Sheppard, a leader of the Women’s suffrage movement.

After our tour of parliament, we walked over to the Supreme Court of New Zealand. The court was in session so we couldn’t tour the chambers but had an informative talk in the lobby area. There were windows where we could peek in and see the lawyers and judges. It was an interesting morning.

Below are pictures from inside the old Supreme Court building. We were allowed to take pictures in here.

We walked to the Thistle Inn for lunch. It is New Zealand’s oldest surviving tavern, 1840, and is operating from its original site! The sea used to be in front of the tavern but due to earthquakes and land reclamation the shoreline is now several blocks away.

Our afternoon was free so a few of us took the cable car up to visit the Wellington Botanic Garden.

The garden was established in 1868. We enjoyed strolling through its gardens and along the many paths.

As we left the Botanic garden, we walked through the Bolton Street Cemetery. It is Wellington’s oldest cemetery which dates back to 1840.

As a retired educator I thought this statement on their education building was powerful!

From the garden we walked toward Wellington’s harbor and enjoyed a beverage and then had a delicious meal at a nearby restaurant with some of our group.