10.09.2021, 10:00
I’m back! (Mina here).
Wellington is amazing, and we had so much fun during our three days in the city. It is a vibrant, compact city with an extraordinary mix of history, culture, nature, and cuisine.
You can visit so many fabulous places, such as great museums, art galleries, shows and much more. Outdoors, Wellington offers adventure activities, such as mountain biking and sea-water kayaking. This is in addition to beautiful walks you can take around the harbour and the surrounding hills. Not to mention the incredible cafés and eating places! We tried to experience as much as possible in our time there. I will give you a quick rundown of what we did on the three different days here. Hope you enjoy it!
Wellington, New Zealand
Day 1
After spending some time settling in at the hotel, changing into some fresh clothes, and having a quick nap, we were all ready to go. However, the weather was not on our side. It was pouring rain when we got out, so we decided to do some indoor activities first.
We visit the incredible Museum of New Zealand Tè Papa Tongarewa.
There, we learned about the great treasures and stories of the country, its completely unique natural environment, Maori culture, art, heritage, and more fascinating history. We spent the morning in the cool and innovative museum, and had a great time!
When we left the museum, the weather had cleared up. I suggested that we take a ride on the bright red Wellington Cable Car. It is a classic. It went from the terminal in the Lambton Quay shopping district, and up to the lookout for panoramic views of the city. We got to see and experience more of Wellington! On our way, we were also able to visit the Cable Car Museum, Space Place at Carter Observatory, and Botanic Garden.
Day 2
The next morning, we were all exhausted, but we decided that we must make the most of our time here. Therefore, we had a quick breakfast at the hotel and asked where the best place to get coffee is. We had no idea we would be so spoiled for choice! Wellington is named one of the top 8 coffee cities in the world by CNN! We were told that Flight Coffees the Hangar is a good place to start, so that’s where we went!
Our Coffee!!
After our amazing coffee experience, we were completely awake and ready to learn for ourselves why Wellington is known as the film capital of NZ!
Miramar is a seaside suburb of Wellington. It is home to many world-class movie-making talents and technologies. One of these is Weta, which is made up of the dual companies of Weta Workshop and Weta Digital. They have helped create some of the world’s most creative and cutting-edge films, as well as television series with leading international film studios. The Hollywood director James Cameron chose Wellington to make his Oscar-winning film, Avatar. Weta has also worked on other Hollywood blockbusters that include The Lord of the Rings trilogy, King Kong, The Avengers, and Ghost in the Shell.
We explored their 20 years of creativity with the Weta Studio Tour.
Movie Making Magic in Wellington
We also went on an expert tour; the Wellington Movie Tours. We were brought to specific filming locations, where we were shown and explained what scenes were filmed there – we even found ourselves having a guided tour by an extra from one of the films! We also visited the Weta Cave. It’s a mini-museum featuring movie props, collectables, artwork and behind-the-scenes footage from the movies made there.
Day 3
After our super busy second day in the city, we decided to take it easy on the third day and discover some of New Zealand’s wildlife. Rick really wanted to see New Zealand’s national bird: the Kiwi. That’s why we headed to the Zealandia nature reserve.
Just imagine a lush forest, that is home to more than 40 rare species of native wildlife. That’s where we went. Zealandia is an incredible ecosanctuary in Wellington.
We explored the outdoors, and during the day, walk amongst rare birds like hihi and takah. We also saw some prehistoric reptiles like the tuatara bathing in the sun.
It was probably the most incredible, though, when the sanctuary transformed after dark.
We were on a guided tour and saw thousands of glow worms, while over 150 Kiwis were roaming free.
It was an amazing experience to see the increasing native bird biodiversity in Wellington! After our day taking in New Zealand’s nature and wildlife, we went back to the hotel and started packing up our things. This was our last day in Wellington!
Next up, you can read about what Rick discovered about New Zealand’s history and culture during our time in Wellington.
Stay tuned :)
