The Wellington Botanic Gardens are located above the city, but are easily accessible by the cable car, which leaves from Cable Car Lane on Lambton Quay, or by the number 12 bus. You can also walk there, which takes slightly longer than the cable car but isn't too long. Like most botanic gardens, entrance is free.

The gardens stretch for many acres, of which I only sampled, literally, the tip of. There are so many possible paths that you could spend many hours wandering around in here; luckily, there are plenty of signposts about to keep you orientated. I walked down the path from the cable car and randomly chose places I'd like to see. I ended up on the path towards Lady Norwood's Rose Garden, but I didn't quite make it that far, sadly--the Rose Garden is at the bottom of the gardens, at the entrance you come in from if you take the bus or walk, and I turned around before I made it this far.

The gardens weren't spectacular ones like Christchurch's, although I've seen in pictures that the Main Gardens have many more flowers and colors. I didn't mind this though, because there was plenty of other wonderful greenery to see otherwise. There were also some pretty good views off the hill to the lesser-seen areas of Wellington beyond.

One thing I found amusing, having made this trip from Australia, was the fact that somehow I found myself in the Australian garden with the now-familiar eucalypts, among other plants.

There were plenty of benches scattered about that I took advantage of to sit and just enjoy. Like many other places I had found on this trip, the Botanic Gardens offered me a place to relax and just enjoy life, something university students forget to do all too often.