Day 21 - The Sights of Wellington

​It was a more civilised start time today (which is more than can be said about tomorrow). The first item on the agenda for our day in Wellington was a visit to Zealandia - a fenced wildlife sanctuary that aims to protect some of New Zealand’s rarest birds, plants, insects, reptiles and the like. It is a huge area, and we walked around just a small part of the park with our guide Andrew. We saw lots of birds, including tuis, shags, a saddleback and (my favourite) kakas. 

We also got to see tuataras, which were very cool (note - they are not lizards!) and some slightly odd insects called wetas.

With clear blue skies, it was perfect weather for Zealandia, and equally perfect for our next stop - Mt Victoria lookout. We not only got stunning views of the harbour, but I also found two very cool geocaches too! 

After a quick bite to eat, six of us then went to the Weta Workshop. Before you ask, yes, it is named after the weta insect I described earlier - partly because the Māori word translates to something like ‘king of the ugly things’, and this is the company that makes all the special effects and props for loads of films, including Lord of the Rings. We were guided by a very cool guide called Becky and got to learn lots about all the effects and techniques that go into film and tv making. I have concluded that I would not like to have a facial prosthetic though!

My favourite fact from the tour (of many!) was that the Wellington Knitting Society is mentioned in the credits for Lord of the Rings for helping to teach the young designers at Weta how to knit - a skill they needed to make the ‘fake’ chainmail.

We could not take photos for a lot of the tour, but did have some fun with props at the end!

The final main stop for the day was the Te Papa museum - New Zealand’s national museum. The exhibition on Gallipoli was amazing (and included sculptures made by Weta), and I also enjoyed sections on nature, the Pacific peoples in New Zealand, and the Treaty of Waitangi. It was a bit of a whistle-stop tour, but a fascinating museum.

I managed about an hour back at the hotel before we then went out for dinner at a local Asian fusion restaurant. Sheryl, Walter, Gerard and Karen leave the group tomorrow (as we are at the half way point of the tour), so this was a farewell meal for them. We pick up four new people on the South Island in a couple of days. 

At the restaurant, I decided to try the Firecracker chicken as a starter and it is fair to say that it lived up to its name! My fish main course was quite mild after that….

I have loved the day in Wellington today, and kind of wish we had more time here as there is so much to see. It is time to move to the South Island tomorrow though, for part 2 of the tour.