With so much stunning countryside to get around, our itinerary for New Zealand left little time for the major cities. During our stay in Auckland we noted there wasn’t much that set it apart from any other urban centre, and we held the same expectation for Wellington. Eager to make the jump from North to South Island, we scheduled just two nights in the capital city.
After so many months of travel, the lengthy bus journeys were really beginning to grate on us, and we passed the five hour trip to Wellington in a state of constant agitation. By the time we had arrived and checked into our hostel, it was 9:30pm, and there was just one thing on our minds: dinner. In any other capital city you would expect to find a string of late night eateries at your disposal. But not in Wellington. Scouring the city streets, we spotted a fish and chip shop. ‘Perfect!’ we thought. Until we saw the ‘closed’ sign hanging defiantly in the door. Next we came across a takeaway curry place. Same story. Indeed, as we continued wandering our search did not prove any more fruitful, and we were eventually forced to admit defeat, and head to McDonald’s.
By day the scene was a considerably more lively one, with shoppers and commuters filling the city streets. We made a beeline for Te Papa museum, which was top of our Wellington agenda. Whilst their educational value can’t be argued, museums aren’t typically the subject of mass excitement. For this reason we were eager to see what all the fuss was about, after countless travellers had animatedly insisted that we “simply must” visit Te Papa whilst in Wellington. Well, after two hours we had barely scratched the surface, covering just one of the museums multiple floors. The displays were so impressive and detailed, the fact that entry was free really blew our minds! In particular we were both bowled over by a section on the Battle of Gallipoli, which we agreed was the best WW1 exhibition we had ever seen. You could easily spend an entire day wandering the museums many halls, but as we just one day to explore the entire city, a few hours was all our time budget would afford us.
As the title suggests, we found Wellington to be surprisingly small for a capital city. So small, in fact, that we managed to walk it’s entire circumference in just a few hours. Hardly comparable to the monstrous mazes of London and New York! From the top of Mt Victoria (a popular view point) we surveyed the compact city, marvelling at the miniature airport and wondering how large planes could take off on such a small runway. Still, what it lacked in size it made up for in character. The streets were lined with quirky coffee shops and ornate buildings, making it (in our eyes) a preferable option over it’s rival city, Auckland.
And so concluded our time in New Zealand’s North island. Overlooked by many in favour of its southern sister, we had found the North Island to be be bursting with beauty and culture, and well worthy of the two and a half weeks we had devoted to it, if not more. The south would now have a lot to live up to!
This Earth We Call Home 