This weekend I went to three of the most well known tourist attractions in Wellington: the Botanical Gardens, Mount Victoria, and Te Papa Museum. Despite the fact that I live here now, it's still okay to do some of the touristy things, right? And the best part was that all of it was free! Not to mention how great the weather was the entire weekend. I can't believe it's the middle of winter here!
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| At the top of the cable car. This picture does a good job of showing why a lot of people think Wellington resembles San Francisco. |
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| Maria in the Botanical Gardens. |
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The rose garden.... without the roses. We decided that we'll have to come back here in the spring when there are actually flowers in bloom.
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| Inside the greenhouse, or as I called it, that really warm room with plants in it. |
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| Carrot cake and coffee from the nicest little cafe next to the rose garden and greenhouse. |
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Happened upon this waterfall on our way out.
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A cool little plaque in front of the waterfall.
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| A last look at the beautiful Wellington landscape on our way out. |
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| The path up to the Mount Vic lookout, aka part of the path Sam and Frodo took on their way to deliver the One Ring. |
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| A cool sculpture on the Mount Vic Summit. |
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| A map of all the tracks around Mount Vic. We followed the yellow line from the drawing of buildings towards the upper left up to the summit in the upper middle. Eventually I want to do the entire track from the bottom point up to Oriental Bay, the blue area at the top, which is supposed to take about 5 hours. |
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| 120 degree panoramic view of the greater Wellington region, looking towards the northeast at Wellington Harbour. |
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| After climbing back down from Mount Vic, we decided to walk along the waterfront at Oriental Bay, one of the coolest little neighbourhoods with some of the nicest houses I've seen thus far in New Zealand. |
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| Enjoying a passion fruit waffle cone sundae on the beach. |
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| Walking along the water towards Te Papa Museum. |
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| Te Papa is home to the only real giant squid on public display in the world. It was sorta gross, yet fascinating. |
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| A life size replica of a blue whale heart. Some of the aortas are big enough for a person to climb through! |
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| The progressive deforestation of New Zealand from pre-human settlement, to the first Maori settlers, and finally to the European settlers. Despite this, however, everywhere I've been in New Zealand is still way greener than most places in the United States. |
