Wellington, New Zealand

Days 73-75, Monday thru Wednesday, November 6 - November 8

We boarded the Interislander Ferry in Picton on Monday, November 6 and headed to Wellington. We landed and made our way to our urban apartment in downtown Wellington. Parking was our first adventure. We were directed by the AirBnb manager to a parking structure that was obviously built decades ago for very small vehicles. Mickey rose to the challenge and after some maneuvering around vehicles trying to make their way down as we were headed up, we found a parking place and will not be moving the vehicle until we leave! 

Before leaving Picton, we organized our luggage to minimize what we would need in Wellington since it’s a bit of a distance between the car park and our apartment. We gathered our backpacks and headed onto the street to find the apartment. As always, we settled in quickly and were ready to explore our surroundings.

The streets have a big-city feel but without the towering high rise buildings.  Our apartment is a converted Hannah Shoe manufacturing plant. The elevator is original to the plant and the entire vibe is industrial chic.

It is in the heart of the Soho-type neighborhood and Courtney Place comes alive at night. We went out for dinner at Dragonfly, a PanAsian restaurant nearby. We loved the eclectic feel of the place and the food was excellent.

The weather on Tuesday November 7th was expected to be cool, windy and rainy so Mickey & Carol decided to visit a couple nearby museums and avoid the elements.  Our first stop was the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.  

Wellington is the nation’s capital and this museum its “Smithsonian”.  We expected to spend most of the day there and certainly could have except all the school and private groups present made it difficult to fully enjoy everything as we would have liked, so we left after about 3 hours.

With that said the exhibits were very well displayed and most were interactive.  The museum did reinforce some common themes across all of the New Zealand cultural and historical displays we’ve seen, and those are: 

• Volcanic and Thermal Activity
• Indigenous Native Species
• Māori Culture
• Invasion by Outsiders (human & animal)
• New Zealanders contribution in World Wars
• Marine and Nautical Activities/Events.
• Extinction and Environment

After lunch we hit the Museum of Wellington which was entirely focused on Wellington and its harbor. It has been named as one of the top 50 museums in the world, and it certainly earns that reputation. 

Upon entering the museum, you are transported back to the late 1880’s when the building was used as a bond store to warehouse bonded cargo. There are 3 floors and an attic full of exhibitions, interactive films, a Time Machine and so much maritime history of sailors, explorers and seafarers. There is a detailed exhibition about the sinking of the Interislander Ferry in 1968. (Yes, this is the ferry company we took to Picton and back.)

Wednesday, November 8th was a full-on walking day. We started at our apartment and walked to the downtown business district and the “Seat of Government”. We took a guided tour of the Parliament House where we saw the various areas inside the neoclassical building where the New Zealand government is run. (Compare to a tour of the U.S. Capital.)

Here are some pictures of the building from the outside.

These pictures were taken from inside the debating chamber where the Members of Parliament meet to debate laws. The Government members sit to the Speaker’s right side with the Prime Minister sitting in the fourth seat from the end and the opposition sit in the seats opposite, on the left hand side of the Speaker.

The Legislative Council Chamber, named for its previous purpose, was used as a debating chamber by this now defunct council. It was abolished in 1951. It is now used for special events, meetings and functions.

As we toured the various areas of the House of Parliament, a metal biscuit (cookie) tin that was located behind plexiglass was pointed out as a humble start for some of New Zealand’s most progressive laws. In a traditional session, there are 8 “time slots” for a bill to be debated. Sometimes a bill might be removed for some reason from the session, freeing up a slot for a member’s bill from the biscuit tin. They randomly select someone (often a student passing by in the hallway) to reach their hand into the biscuit tin and retrieve a token with a number of an ad-hoc member’s bill. This bill is then brought in for discussion and debate in the available slot. This has created some of New Zealands’ most progressive law changes including:

• giving people with a terminal illness the option of requesting assisted dying (End of Life Choice Act 2019)

• allowing all people regardless of sexual orientation or gender to be married (Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Act 2013)

• decriminalising prostitution (Prostitution Reform Act 2003)

• allowing adopted people to obtain information about their birth parents (Adult Adoption Information Act 1985) decriminalising sexual acts between men (Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986).

You might wonder why a biscuit tin? The story goes that an aide was asked to find a container to hold the tokens. He bought the tin, ate the cookies and then provided it as the container. It has been used for this purpose ever since. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.

Standing next to the Parliament House is the Beehive, the obvious name for what is previously known as the parliament’s executive wing. It was completed in 1982 and has housed cabinet ministers and the prime minister.

This memorial to the Unknown Fallen Soldier’s was dedicated after WWI and again after WWII to commemorate those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

When we were in Kaeo and visited the Tribal Grounds, we saw a replica of the Declaration of Independence and The Treaty (see the Kaeo post for more details). The National Library (located in Wellington) houses the original documents which we were able to see. It also has the original petition of over 10,000 names suffragette Kate Sheppard garnered in her quest to give women the vote. She was successful and New Zealand became the first country to give women the right to vote in 1893.

After lunch at The Old Bailey Hotel restaurant and bar, we took the Wellington cable car up for great views of the city and a stroll around the botanical gardens and the observatory. The cable car takes riders from the city center to the suburb of Kelburn high above the city. It launched its first car in 1889. 

We returned to the city center and began a self-guided walking tour of the Wellington waterfront which includes many heritage buildings and is considered to “make” Wellington city. With city office towers on one side and the sparkling harbor on the other - and a blend of heritage buildings, museums, parks and open spaces, cafes, restaurants and entertainments along the way - the waterfront is sacrosanct to Wellingtonians. Here are pictures of the notable stops we made along the way.

Sheds 11 and 13: Two nearly identical historic wharf buildings. In the early 1900’s these Edwardian Industrial style sheds sat at the harbor’s edge. This wharf area is one of the major reclamations undertaken in Wellington city. Shed 11 is now used as a function and art exhibition space.

Shed 5: Of 1886 vintage, formerly a timber warehouse and now a restaurant and the oldest building on the waterfront.

Shed 3: Better known as the Dockside Restaurant and Bar started life also as a timber warehouse in 1887.

Queen’s Wharf Crane: On the open wharf old cranes give a hint of what this area once looked like.

Bond Store: Magnificently restored Bond Store (which also served as the head office for the once-influential Wellington Harbor Board) is now the Museum of Wellington, which we visited on Tuesday.

Hikitia: The only operational steam-driven, self-propelled, floating crane in the Southern Hemisphere. It worked at the Port of Wellington from 1926 - 1985. Private owners have restored it and it can lift up to 80 tons.

The Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand (which we visited on Tuesday) is on this route along with the Circa Theater, a Kupe statue and a representation of a Māori meeting house.

Chaffers Dock: This area housed Wellington’s first harbor master.

Since our fitness trackers registered over 17,000 steps for the day, we decided to grab something at the local grocery store and have dinner in our apartment. We have an early start in the morning as we drive to Auckland for the final couple days of our adventure. Watch for another post soon.