It was another beautiful drive leaving the Tongariro National Park passing through more rolling hills, mountains, streams, beaches and by more sheep!  Several of the areas on State Highway 4 were down to one lane where roads were collapsed that run along the cliff areas and were under repair.

But we are in Wellington safe and sound, the country’s capital and the world’s most southern capital city.  It sits on the southwest tip of New Zealand’s North Island.  It is also referred to as the “windy city”, but unlike Chicago, it is because of the weather and not its politics.  Wellington sits on very wide Cook Strait that connects the Tasman Sea to the South Pacific Ocean and which separates the north and south islands of New Zealand.  Wellington takes the brunt of some northwesterly winds as well as southerlies from Antarctica.

We are staying at a 1920s cottage off of Cuba Street on Tonks Grove called City Cottages.  We found this great place through Airbnb (as we did for Auckland).  Our Airbnb experiences have been great so far.  We have used them in France and Spain, too.

Once again we are in a great city neighborhood! Cuba street is very colorful and eclectic to say the least, the more bohemian area of Wellington.  The street is less than 1 km long (about 1/2 mile) but packed with life.  It is lined with buildings from the 1800s and filled with great restaurants of all ethnicities, unique shops, art galleries and buskers.  It was named for an immigrant ship that arrived in 1840 named “Cuba”, not for the Caribbean country.  For our Florida friends it is a bit like Ybor City (however many more people, restaurants and shops…and a younger vibe).

We have been here five nights and already have a good start working our way through the restaurants:  Malaysian Satay, Fidels, El Matador, Ekims, Saigon Van, and Laundry.  On Friday night we did the Cuba Street “Friday Night Market” for dinner – Moroccan spicy chicken wrap and Vietnamese noodles with chicken.

Today we are at Mt Vic Chippery, not on Cuba St but nearby at the “bottom” of Mt. Victoria…great fish and chips!  Believe it or not, we do have a budget for food – restaurants and groceries.  We have determined that if we stick to the same budget we have had the last few years in Florida we are on course…a worthy challenge.  We have been doing breakfast mostly at home ?

We took the Wellington Cable Car up the steep hillside on a beautiful sunny day.  Wellington is relatively flat near the waterfront but is surrounded by steep hills and somewhat mountainous terrain.  Thus, even private cable cars have become quite popular here, particularly as ways for residents to access homes that they have built into the steep hillsides.

At the top of the Wellington Cable Car ride is Wellington’s Botanical Garden.  We strolled through the garden over a couple hours back down to the city center… A beautiful garden that sits just on the north side of the central business district (CBD).

 We made a visit to  Te Papu, New Zealand’s national museum and art gallery – an impressive museum.    We spent most of the visit at the Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War, exhibit. This excellent and emotional exhibit tells the story of New Zealand’s involvement in WWI’s Gallipoli campaign where New Zealand lost 93 percent of it’s troops.  Overall in the Great War nearly 100,000 New Zealanders were sent overseas at a time when their total population was just 1.1 million and around 18,000 died and 41,000 wounded as a result.

We also made a visit and took a tour of the Parliament buildings that included the Parliament House, Beehive and Parliamentary library.  The Beehive is the common name for the Executive Wing of the New Zealand Parliament buildings, named such because of its shape and design.  The country’s Prime Minister and cabinet ministers  are located there.  The parliament house contains the Speaker of the House of Representatives office, the debating chamber and committee rooms.

 Sunday is a good day to visit the rugged south coast of Wellington at Owhiro Bay and the Red Rocks Reserve to observe fur seals.  On Sunday, 4 wheel drive vehicles are prohibited from driving along the trek.  The trek out and back along the coast from Owhiro Bay to Sinclear Head was 4 miles.  Sinclear Head just past red rocks is home to a seal colony where we saw one large lone seal that seemed very curious of us. The seal did let us get close enough for a a couple pics!

 The coast here is beautiful, somewhat rocky, black sand and some heavy surf and waves.  The beach is alongside a steep seemingly eroding mountain or hillside.  The area is home to four historic baches (simple beach houses) at Red Rocks.  The baches were built in the early 1900s and kept in original form by their owners.  Typically made largely out of recycled materials, these may be seen around New Zealand in beach areas.  They were modest beach holiday houses that became popular in the mid 20th century.

Much more to explore in the Wellington area before we launch off to the South Island of New Zealand at the end of the month!  A few more pics below!