Wellington New Zealand

Although this is our third trip to New Zealand we have never been to the capital city of Wellington. We opted to fly here as it is the closest international airport to Greytown where we will be spending most of our time at the home of Sue and Helen. We are spending two nights alone in Wellington to decompress from our days of traveling. 17 hours of flying, 3 hours early arrival at the airport and three hours of layover in Sydney gives us 23 hours of travel, and that is just from Dubai which is a 12 hour flight from Boston. We arrived in Wellington just before 3pm local time so we have plenty of time to move in and shop before sleeping.

Our first view of New Zealand from the plane window.

Jim found this AirBNB in the heart of downtown Wellington called Hyde Lane. The building had an indoor lap pool and small gym.

This is the guest room for our friends Helen and Sue who will come from their home in Greytown NZ to spend time with us in Wellington.

There is a small deck off of the living room.

Lovely open space Living room, kitchen and dining room.

Our unit was on the 11th floor with lovely views over the city and a small balcony.

First full day in Wellington we walked around the harbor and central business district in the morning. Here is a short video of a rowing team in a traditional Maori rowing shell which is called a Waka.

Short video of the boat house and launch ramps for the boats.

This ferry takes you to the South Island of New Zealand. We were originally going to go there but were unable to get a car rental as the summer time here is loaded with tourists and everything books up well in advance.

Video of some kayakers. So many different types of water sports are enjoyed in Wellington Harbor Port Nicholson.

Wellington has many famous colonial buildings which showcase Gothic Revival, Italianate and Victorian styles. Sandy went shopping in the business district while Jim got a haircut.

We stopped here for a light lunch and shared a serving of delicious fish tacos and of course a Margarita.

Wellington has many statues and monuments. This one depicts the legendary explorer named Lupe with his wife Hine Te Pekahourangi with their priest who sailed to New Zealand from Tahiti.

This statue depicts the famous world explorer Jim Steen who flew here from the USA.

Pohutukawa is the New Zealand Christmas tree that produces a brilliant display of red flowers. It represents life, death and the spirit world in Maori culture. It also signifies strength and resistance and endurance due to its ability to grow on harsh cliffs.

In the late afternoon we took another walk to The Mount Victoria Lookout. We walked up this steep hill to access the entrance to Mt Victoria hiking trail.

We did a 4.6 km hike walking through historic pine forests to reach the lookout. Some of it was very steep but the 360 degree views were worth the climb as you can see in the photos below.

Fortunately we did not encounter any falcons swooping down on us.

We passed some interesting trees with amazing conifers.

We opted for a shortcut and scampered down this very steep hill to the road. We really regretted not taking our poles on this hike.

So many beautiful flowers are in bloom here during the summer.

Succulent plant growing out of a golf shoe.

We really enjoyed all the different style houses in Wellington.

We watched this sunset enfold before going to bed.

We were awoken that night to a fire alarm and a loud speaker ordering us to evacuate the building. We scurried down the stairs from the 11th floor. It was surprising that everyone exited in a very calm manner. This is a picture of all of the residents congregating outside. We were the only ones in pj’s as we went to bed at 9 and the alarm went off at 10:30 pm. We waited maybe 20 minutes outside before the Fire Department gave the all clear and we returned up the elevator to bed and never found out what caused the alarm to go off.

And that is a wrap of our first few hours in Wellington. We never really experienced any jet lag on this flight which brought us 18 plus hours ahead of Boston time.

Living the retirement dream

Wellington New Zealand

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Wellington New Zealand

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