I was warned before coming to Wellington that it was windy. I thought nothing more of it, even onboard my Interislander boat, but once I had arrived in this, one of the southermost capital cities in the world, I knew they were right. Welcome to windy Wellington!
Exposed to the Antarctic drift and unsheltered to the east or south, Wellington somehow should be known as Windy Wellington. I wasn’t ready for it, but I certainly wasn’t upset about it. It was nice to have some extreme weather for once. And we sweat less in the wind – so really I could get all my clothes washed there and move one without my main bag smelling of sweaty tops.
It was my first time in NZ’s capital city. I didn’t know a lot about it other than the best sights to see were the parliament and the cable car, as far as I could tell. Well that turned out to be spot on. I also HAD to make a visit to the football stadium (and store) of New Zealand’s only professional football team – Wellington Phoenix FC, who play their matches in the A-League.
Arrival in Wellington.
The shuttle bus from the Ferry to the main train station.
The bus from the main train and bus station to Courteney Place, very near my hostel.
My hostel, Base Backpackers on Cambridge Terrace.
The main street for bars and restaurants, Courteney Place.
The “Bee Hive” – the office buildings of parliament.
The Old St. Paul’s Cathedral.
The New St. Paul’s Cathedral.
The Wellington Cable Car.
Westpac Stadium, home of Wellington Phoenix FC.
Parliament House. The current one, opened in 1995 by The Queen.
The Richard Seddon Statue, the first Prime Minister of New Zealand.
The proud New Zealand fleg flies in the wind. A fleg many Kiwis don’t like, mostly because it gets confused with the Australian fleg, but also because they believe they should have a joint fleg with Maori culture on it or something like the silver fern on it (that’s used by the NZ All Black rugby team).
Flying my own Northern Ireland fleg on the North Island at NZ’s Parliament.
The Old Parliament House. This is completely made of wood believe it or not, and is the second largest wood building in the world. Only a temple in Japan is bigger.
The library.
Ulsterman John Ballance from Glenavy in County Antrim was one of the early Prime Ministers of New Zealand. This statue sits proudly in the parliament grounds.
The oldest pub in Wellington – the Thistle Inn, a Scottish style pub.
I popped in for a quick beer on my dander round the city.
Wellington train station.
Maori Culture in Wellington.
A sign for Blair Wright group.
A Welsh bar – quite a rarity these days, unless it’s in Wales.
St. James’s Theatre.
A $3 coffee got me an hour of free Wi-Fi internet.
Really not sure what this building was, but I liked it.
Rush hour in Welly.
Some more central buildings.
View from the hostel bedroom over to the hills on the edge of town.
My Room – 701 on the seventh floor at Base.
Bus Tour of the city.
Te Papa – National Museum – spent so long in there…it’s a GREAT museum, and totally free.
Wellington War Memorial.
Australia’s National Cricket Ground.
National Library Entrance – everything must be written in English and Maori if its related to the government.
Belfast Street. Not a soul in sight. Funny that its a “no exit”
Zealandia – a wildlife reserve on the edge of town.
Botanical Gardens.
View of the city from the top of Botanic Gardens.
Victoria University.
The new High Courts which were opened by Prince William in January 2010.
The banks/commercial district of the city.
Blair and Allen Streets.
A funky fountain in the city’s pedestrian precinct.
Courteney Place by day. This is Courteney Central shopping centre.
Boats in the harbour.
Wellington Phoenix FC are one of the world’s southernmost professional football teams. They didn’t play at home when I was there, but I still visited their stadium and souvenir shop. They play in the A-League, and are the only NZ representative in that league. New Zealand, were also the only unbeaten team at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Wellington was nice – and strange looking back now having been in places where there is no way you can walk around and feel safe. Wellington is a safe capital city. Not many countries can say that.
Random Fact – Official this is the world’s southernmost capital city of a country
Boots – Wellington
Duke of – Wellington
OCEAN COLOUR SCENE – GET BLOWN AWAY:
DUKE OF WELLINGTON’S ARMY:
PRINCE WILLIAM OPENS THE NEW HIGH COURTS:
* This post is now complete, but perhaps I will have further recollections on Wellington as I seem to have bunged a lot in here. I have at least 20 other videos from Wellington on You Tube.