Day 32 - Boxing Day in Wellington

Even though I had reverted to a Coldral night pill, not a good night.  By the time we woke, we had docked right across the road from the “cake tin” stadium in Wellington.

With Greg and Cathy, we decided that as it was a fine day and we could see our target across the bay, the Princess $5US/$8NZ shuttle wasn’t really worth it.  (I wonder who does the currency calculations?) We strolled off the ship easily enough and en route, called in at the small Maori Art & Craft Centre.  We spent a bit of time (and money) here as they had some excellent stuff on display.  On to the Te Papa Museum along the very attractive waterfront.  This is NZ’s National museum and far better you research it on line as I can’t really do it justice on here.

Entry is free (much to the surprise of our American guests), though there are boxes around for voluntary donations. This is a spectacular museum and well worth a visit.  We barely scratched the surface during our visit but left with a distinct impression that this is something that NZ can be proud of. 

After a coffee, we strolled out back towards the centre of town, when Greg and Cathy split to do their own thing.  We headed to the famous Wellington cable car.  A bonus for us oldies as our NZ Seniors card allowed us a free ride.  We were tempted by the food and drink available at the top, but the NZ minced meat pie was instantly forgettable!  We didn’t stay too long after taking in the spectacular view and headed back down again to Lambton Quay.   What we are not sure of is how Princess manages to charge about $99 for a short City tour and just these two attractions... We spied the shuttle bus and decided to fork out the $5US for the trip back.  Behind us were a couple of the entertainment staff and it was nice to see them out as a couple.

After a pleasant dinner, we watched a film in the theatre, Helen Mirren, in “The Debt”.  Good film but not exactly light entertainment, so e then headed for the Explorer’s Lounge to the comedian, Darren Sanders.  Pretty good.

I still couldn’t access my emails on line, so I gave in, changed my computer settings and downloaded them.

Our last sea day tomorrow,  and then just one more port and it is home again – until the next time.