Whirlwind Tour of Wellington

We finally made it to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, after a bit of a hassle (see "Experiences" in "Jet-lagged in Auckland" for the full explanation). This was a lovely little capital, and we wished that we could have been here longer, but sadly, only had half the day to spend before our ferry left for the South Island. Luckily, I came back on a future trip and got to spend much more time in this city.

And believe me, it needs a good amount of time to cover all the things you can do here, since you can spend 2 days straight in Te Papa (the national museum) itself! Although the city is not touted nearly as much as anything in the North Island, it's definitely a destination I would recommend, and hey, you might even see Peter Jackson while you're there!

Quick Tips:

Budget at least 3 or 4 days so you can take your time in the museum and seeing what the city has to offer. And if you get to the city and feel that you've done everything you're interested in, you can always take a day trip to the surrounding areas. And if you are taking the ferry out of Wellington, take the Lynx--it's much easier to get to from any lodging and attractions in town.

Best Way To Get Around:

We found that walking worked for getting to and from places like Te Papa, but from Courtenay Place we found that it was a bit of trek to get to places like Lambton Quay and the Lynx ferry by foot. We paid NZ and caught a bus that took us to all the places we didn't necessarily want to walk to carrying large backpacks.

This hostel was advertised as a converted hotel that has "fabulous bathrooms." We were very curious as to how the bathrooms were actually going to turn out, but they were, in fact, fabulous. There were plenty of toilets, sinks, and showers, all very nicely clean. Going into the bathroom actually made you feel like you were in a rather nice hotel, albeit one with community bathrooms.

The rooms weren't too bad either--the room we stayed in had six beds that were spread out enough that we could put our stuff down and still have room to get into bed and out of the room without jumping and weaving. I believe we paid about NZ$23 since we didn't have the BBH card, which wasn't a bad deal, especially since we just missed Rugby Sevens (the next night at the hostel was apparently costing about NZ$50!).

The hostel had a nice atmosphere but wasn't overly loud, and there was a good lounge room for people to look at brochures and sit around and talk. The staff was also very helpful and let us check in at 1am when we arrived late from Auckland with no hassles at all.

I thought this was one of the best backpacker joints I stayed in on my whole trip--and for the people who aren't looking for quite hostel-type accommodation, there is still an actual hotel portion as well. As for dining, we were getting used to the idea of having to go to the grocery store and cook our own food or go out searching for food in the city by this point, but the Cambridge offered a nice surprise. They had a bar area where they served all meals, and the service was fast and friendly and the food was wonderful (especially compared to the backpackers' food we had for the rest of the trip). None of us paid more than NZ$8 for a full omelette breakfast.

I definitely have to say that of all the museums I've ever been to, this one held my attention for the longest period of time. The national museum of New Zealand, or "Our place," had a lot of stuff that obviously isn't in other museums, and all this stuff can keep you looking for many days without getting bored.

I went here for half a day and then proceeded to go back for half a day more on my return to Wellington. The best thing about the museum is that you can do just that--you can leave and come back and see a few more exhibits whenever you want, because it's free! Of course, they have a huge store that goes along with the museum, which is how they get your money.

But anyway, the exhibits were fantastic and ranged from Maori culture (with greenstone, paua, houses, canoes, artwork, and more) to the special exhibit on the 1970s! I wasn't such a fan of the "earthquake house" that you stand in while it shakes--I thought it would be a lot more interesting, but the ground just bounces a bit and you're done.

Of course, there are the obligatory stuffed and plaster animals, which was cool because it was our first glimpse of an actual kiwi bird. I found it amusing that they had a stuffed armadillo, being from Texas.

But overall, it was a great experience and definitely one of the highlights of Wellington, and I know that if I ever go to Wellington again, I'll go back, because I missed a lot and their exhibits are always changing. Also another plus for this museum--they are the ones who put together "The Lord of the Rings" exhibition that toured the world the past couple of years, and it is currently, as I write, back in the museum, with new props, costumes, and the like.

And when you are done with all the indoors stuff, they have an outdoors area that is supposed to highlight all the natural wonders of New Zealand, including fake glowworms in their cave roof!

Although not advertised as a "tour," this ride offered some of the most spectacular scenery we saw in New Zealand. The ferry is a 2 1/2-hour trip (in the Lynx's case, a catamaran as opposed to a normal ferry), and it takes you from Wellington, across the Cook Strait, and through the Marlborough Sounds, at the north of the South Island.

Not only were there great views, but it was much cheaper than flying to the South Island--we got our tickets at a discount, so I am not sure how much they are normally.

The ferry offered anything we wanted: if we just wanted to sit, there was food, a TV, room to walk around, and even a land-line telephone, but we spent most of our time in the back of the ferry jockeying for position to see who could get the best photo. And I, being notoriously seasick, didn't feel sick at all until I tried to write in my journal, because it was a very smooth ride.

When you get off the ferry, you are in Picton, which has a few backpackers and a few things to do, but it also has all the major bus lines that meet the ferry and take you on to wherever you want to go, whether it is down the east coast to Kaikoura like us or across the top of the island to Nelson and the Abel Tasman, one place I would have loved to have seen.

I think it's safe to say that everyone knows someone who loves the Lord of the Rings, or they love the movies themselves. I happen to count nearly my entire family in the "love" camp, which is a good thing because I had people to see the movies with, but was not so great when I told them I was going to New Zealand. All of a sudden, I had a list of Lord of the Rings-related items to buy, and only a small period of time to search for them between all the activities I was doing!

I didn't have the time or the energy to search in Auckland, so Wellington was my first port-of-call on the Lord of the Rings front. Unfortunately, I could barely find any souvenir stores in the Courteney Quarter of Wellington, much less stores that sold Lord of the Rings memorabilia! I thought that since Wellington was the headquarters of the movie, and Peter Jackson's workshops, that there would be plenty of merchandise available. I also thought that since the Courteney Quarter was the one that contains the Embassy Theater—the site of the huge, 100,000 person strong premiere for Return of the King in 2003—it would have plenty of opportunities to find anything LOTR-related. I was wrong.

I went into at least two stores that had "Lord of the Rings T-shirts!" or "Lord of the Rings merchandise!" signs in their windows. However, when I asked the shopkeepers about said T-shirts, they looked at me like I was crazy and told me they had run out of those about 2 years ago. Then why do you have the signs in your windows? That's an awful long time to "forget" to take down a sign.

I ended up empty-handed after my trip to Wellington. Even on a future visit, when I found where the souvenir stores were hiding in Wellington, I still did not find all that much LOTR gear. My advice to anyone that is searching for anything LOTR--and I would think, even 3 years after the Return of the King, that would still be a rather large number--wait until you get to the South Island. Christchurch had infinitely more souvenir stores in general, and at least 2 or 3 that offered T-shirts and guidebooks. Queenstown had an entire store for the Lord of the Rings. This store had plenty of collectibles and T-shirts, but was ridiculously overpriced. I was happy with what I found in the large chains (Aotea NZ, for one), and I think my wallet was much happier with what I found there as well!