Day 20 - Wellington Cable Car and Weta Studios

Today was the second full day in Wellington and as it goes... in the morning it doesn't rush and then the day goes by quickly. After breakfast, we strolled towards the Cable Car and were surprised to see how much of the city we hadn't seen yet. The Cable Car is like a Swiss ski lift, so a cog railway that can climb steep mountains on rails. Additionally, it looks nice in its bright red color. Once we reached the top - the ride is not really long - we admired the view of the hazy city and then went to the Botanic Garden. This was opened in 1844 and offers beautiful views of the bay and the city. It is also well-maintained and has really nice trees and plants. Norman and I also tried to be tree huggers and feel something. It didn't really work. Maybe 5 seconds are not enough and you have to hug longer....

Then we went through a cemetery with really old graves. Apparently, in New Zealand, all graves are left as they are, even if there are no living relatives anymore.

We visited the Parliament, called the "Beehive." It's not beautiful, but interesting. The old Parliament is still there and in use. Because of the summer vacations, everything was deserted again, as everyone is on holiday here. And only a few tourists roam the streets around the Parliament.

After a walk back, buying a bag made of New Zealand hemp, and the daily sports session, we went to the Weta Film Studios where all the costumes and props for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy were created. Norman had booked some kind of Studio Combo Tour in advance and it turned out that our tickets were actually for yesterday. I started to have hope and wanted to generously console Norman that such a "mishap" can happen to anyone and it's not a big deal. I was already looking forward to hanging out somewhere in the sun when the friendly lady at the ticket counter proposed to rebook our tickets. Hooray. So, we actually went on the tour. In the souvenir shop of the event, I already sensed something bad: only junk for sale. Lord of the Rings swords for $29,500, Gollum figurines, terrible collectibles... it was a horror. The tour started. We were then guided through several rooms and explained how the film props and costumes were made. Photos were not allowed and I got sleepier and sleepier... Probably more interesting for Lord of the Rings fans than for me.

Afterwards, we were allowed to see the props of a completely unknown holiday series called "Thunderbirds are Go": it is shot using miniatures. That was a bit more interesting than the first part of the tour and didn't take very long.

In the evening, we enjoyed Vietnamese food at The Saigon.

Well, that's it for today... tomorrow Norman will write and he will combine the trip with golf. Sounds familiar. We will continue from Wellington towards the north to Ohakune, where we will explore the Tongariro National Park - with Mount Doom and all that. It's a 300 km drive, which takes longer in New Zealand, as we all know. On the way, we will play the most beautiful golf course of our trip, the Paraparaumu Golf Club. Exciting!