Wellington, New Zealand

After 4+ days on the Tasman Sea crossing from Australia, we set foot in New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington. Located in the southeast corner of the North Island, Wellington is the southernmost capital city in the world, often called windy Wellington. It’s home to the studios of Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. Our first stop here was a tour of New Zealand’s parliament building, commonly known as the Beehive for its architectural design. New Zealand’s government is unique since it’s unicameral, having only a House of Representatives and no other chamber of delegates like our Senate. Here, they passed the first act in the world granting women the right to vote in 1893. Next, we rode the cable car up to the botanical gardens for fabulous views of the city below. Lastly, we toured the Te Papa Tongarewa museum, NZ’s National Museum where we saw an amazing exhibit on the Gallipoli campaign of WWI, the first time New Zealand and Australian troops fought as one unit, known as the ANZACs. There were eight human-like figures, several times normal size frozen in time. The loss of life in this infamous battle has left scars on this country’s psyche to this day.Read more