Wellington
Marita3
Mark & Helen Syrett
Thu 18 Dec 2014 21:30
| 41:16.864S 174:46.793E Having driven down from Napier we duly found blue cloudless skies. We stopped for a night at a 'freedom site' about 12 km outside Wellington. A lovely spot by the river entrance and Paul and Jenny had a drink with us—they were from Aukland and going south for Christmas. He was a fifth generation New Zealand his erstwhile ancestor having arrived as a 17 year old in 1843 having been kicked off his croft in Scotland.  There were a few other somewhat larger mobiles at the site——one extended his sitting room  another his bedroom  We had booked a place in the Wellington Waterfront Motorhome which was right in the city centre and within 100 metres of the Bluebridge Ferry that we had to check into by 0700 the next day. We did the ‘must dos’ of Wellington including the Museum, the cable car, a walk back down through the botanical garden and Lady Norwood’s rose garden, Cuba Street (New Zealand’s first pedestrianised street) and the Cathedral. A little bit of retail therapy and Wellington was ticked, but not before a major panic by Helen who ‘lost’ her Maui Jim sunglasses. For those of you who have had a pair you will realise that this was going to a major catastrophe. Before Mark was despatched to do a backward visit to all those places seen during the day it was fortunate that she lifted off her sun hat—they were underneath on her head!    It was a lovely city and they had made optimum use of the waterfront with plenty of cafes, bars and restaurants. Despite this finding somewhere to eat was difficult as we had hit office Christmas party time and nearly every place was full and very noisy.  A good night’s sleep and we were ready for our cruise to the South Island. |