New Zealand Day 7 – History, art, and beautiful views in Wellington

Tuesday 17th January 2023

This morning we walked to the quay and had a wander along. It’s a beautiful area.

We continued to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, which is free to enter. It’s an excellent museum with very engaging and well thought out exhibits, most of which are very kid friendly. The museum is mostly concerned with the history (both cultural and natural) of New Zealand, with exhibits on the first settlers, Māori culture, wildlife, and volcanoes.

The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa is an excellent museum

Upstairs is an art gallery, although I can’t say I found the art as impressive as the rest of the museum.

I wasn’t quite so impressed with the upstairs art gallery

After the museum, we went for lunch at The Garden, a Korean restaurant in the foodcourt of the James Cook arcade. We ordered a beef bulgogi bimibap and 6 boiled dumplings to share. They were both delicious, with a lovely chilli kick.

When we’d eaten, we walked the short distance to Wellington Cable Car. It’s $6 (about £3) for a one way trip, which is what we decided to do. The journey is surprisingly short, at just over 3 minutes.

At the top of the hill is the Cable Car Museum, a small museum that’s free to enter and tells the story of the history of the cable car and how it works. There are also a couple of old cars in the museum and you can see the old winding equipment.

The Cable Car Museum is small but interesting, and free to enter

There are some beautiful views over Wellington from the top of Cable Car. It’s worth getting a ride up just to see them.

The views over Wellington from the top of the Cable Car are stunning

You can walk through the Botanic Gardens which is what we did. It’s a very pleasant downhill walk, and a relaxing way to spend a sunny afternoon.

The Botanic Gardens are very pleasant to walk through, especially on a sunny afternoon

It was now late afternoon, so we went back to the hotel to relax for an hour before heading out for dinner. On the way, we walked down the bustling Cuba Street where there’s a cool looking, slightly randomly operating fountain.

I loved the water fountain on Cuba Street

We had dinner at Pho Viet Street Food. As it’s Tuesday they had 2 for 1 on selected cocktails, so we gave the pina colada a go. Both the food and cocktails were good, but not exceptional.