Lower Hutt - Wellington

Before I drove to Wellington, I visited TJ in Lower Hutt. I had met TJ at Castlepoint, and when he found out that I would be taking the ferry from Wellington to Picton a few days later, he invited me over. We had dinner together and enjoyed a beautiful view of Wellington from his rooftop terrace.

In Wellington itself, I went to the Mount Victoria Lookout this time, which at 196m is apparently one of the most beautiful viewpoints in Wellington. I had a lovely view of the city, the harbor bay, and the docks, and I can at least say that the view from Mount Victoria Lookout was more beautiful than the view from the wind turbine during my last visit. However, it was cloudy when I was at the wind turbine.

After sunset, I participated in the Star Gazing event at the observatory in the Botanical Gardens. It was cool that the Star Gazing was offered for free to attract interested individuals. Not so cool was the fact that there were so many trees in the way that we could only see Saturn through the telescope. However, we could see Saturn with its rings and some of its moons, which was truly impressive!

On a walk along the Oriental Parade towards the city center, I enjoyed the view of Evans and Oriental Bay. Apparently, the Oriental Parade is a popular jogging route, as there were chalk messages on the ground like 'Looking good running, smile', or 'Perfect morning to test out your running legs', or 'Save your energy for the turn around'. Additionally, there is a beach there that was created in 2003 using sand from the other side of the Cook Strait.

Once I arrived in the city center, I had breakfast at the Sunday market. There are various stalls where you can get everything from coffee, pastries, fish and chips to wraps and kebabs. The fruit and vegetable sales are arranged so that several sellers have their goods lined up in a way that there is a dedicated aisle for each stall, through which you can be funneled past all the goods and end up at the cash register. There was also live music. But it wasn't until I heard a group of Christmas-costumed individuals playing Christmas songs that I realized it was already the first Advent.

I spent the rest of the day at Te Papa: Museum of New Zealand. I found the exhibition about flora and fauna as well as earthquakes and volcanoes to be the most interesting. Among other things, you can experience a simulation of an earthquake in a house and follow the eruption of Mount Ruapehu. There are also exhibitions about Maori, the first settlers, and refugees who came to New Zealand. But if you really want to see everything in detail, you would need - as so often - several days.

Since I had already booked the ferry to the South Island for the next day before my arrival in New Zealand, the visit to the Te Papa Museum concluded my exploration of the North Island. At least for now, to be continued...