Day 13 - 15 Drive to Wellington (torrential rain) explore the city

We drove from Rotorua to Wellington.  It is about six hour driving time, without stops, despite whatever Google Maps tells you, lol.   We had only one stop and it was raining for 90% of the drive, sometimes torrential down pours.   There had been weather warnings for heavy rain, high winds, thunderstorms for the day of travel.  So driving was slow.   The drive is scenic in various areas, from rolling hills of sheep farms to twisty turning mountainous stretches.   

We stayed four nights in Wellington and explored the city.  Wellington has an eclectic mix of restaurants and we took advantage in our short time there.  

Some of the sights we took in included:

-cable car and walk through Botanic Gardens

-Walk around the harbour, Cuba Street, Lambton Quay, Old Bank Arcade, Hannah’s Laneway and other quirky streets of Wellington.

-see the Beehive (did not get to go inside - protest outside and tours were all booked).  This is where the national parliament of New Zealand sits.  It is named the beehive, because, you guessed it, it looks like a beehive!

-Te Papa Museum !  This is the national museum of New Zealand and it is massive, very impressive and free!   This was probably the highlight in Wellington.   It was an amazing museum and they had a special Exhibit about New Zealand’s participation in Gallipoli during World War 1.   This exhibit included 8 life like human sculptures, created by the Weta Workshop - the group that does all of the props for Lord of The Rings films (and many more).  The sculptures were stunning in how real they appeared and the fact that they were 2.4 times real size.  So imagine the pics below of soldiers - these were 2.4 times the size of a real person.    They were in dark rooms to add to amazing look. It took Weta Workshop 24,000 hours to create the 8 life like sculptures!  Photos and video from this exhibit will follow in a separate page.  

-We also made our way up to Mount Victoria, which overlooks the city and walked down through a nature trail to Oriental Bay.  

-Wellington Museum

-Portrait Gallery Museum

While in Wellington we stayed at the Ramada by Wyndham Wellington Taranaki Street.  This cost about $570NZ for 3 nights.

Here are some pictures from Wellington:

Shopping arcade in downtown

The “Beehive” - where parliament sits 

Oriental Bay with beach in Wellington

Supper at local Indian Restaurant

Dessert:

These photos below were taken at the Wellington airport.  We left Wellington by flying to Blenheim on the South Island of New Zealand.  It is a short flight of about 30min.   We chose flying rather than the ferry to save some time and avoid potential delays which might throw off connections for our itinerary.