Wellington

Sallie at Kelburn-Cable car
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3.02.2007 Wellington, New Zealand

New Zealand is a long narrow country divided in half-North Island and South Island. We have been traveling down the east coast and today we are at the tip of southern tip of North Island in the capital city of Wellington. After twenty five years the capital was moved from Auckland in 1865 so that it would be more in the middle of the country. In 1773 Captain Cook first anchored in Wellington Harbor. and colonization began in 1840 when settlers arrived on the ship” Aurora”. In 1968, a terrible disaster occurred in the harbor. The tragedy was caused by two huge storms that collided and exploded over Wellington. The cruise ship, “The Wahine”, with 734 passengers tried to find safety in the harbor but floundered and capsized. Fifty one passengers lost their lives. In as much as we toured Wellington in 1996, we decided to just take the shuttle into the city and walk around. We did take the cable car for a short ride up to Kilbourn which offered a beautiful view of the city and harbor. We returned to the ship for lunch and then Iwent back to the city by shuttle and took a long interesting walk. I visited The Parliament Buildings-the old one, an impressive like fortress style one, and the new one beside it completed in the 1970’s. It is quite modern looking and shaped like a bee hive. From there I walked back down to the waterfront and visited a terrific city museum on the history of the city and an interesting art museum. The history included a film and many artifacts from “The Wahine Disaster”.I really do enjoy learning about the development of the countries we are visiting. Last night Sallie and I were tired and decided to stay “home” have a drink in our suite as we sailed out of the harbor leaving North Island and headed for our first stop in South Island- Lyttelton. We then enjoyed a good dinner served in our suite.