Day 52 ~ 18,100 Miles, Wellington

Day 52 ~ 18,100 Miles

Move over Chicago, we are cruising out from the windiest city in the world, Wellington, New Zealand through the Cook Strait into the Tasman Sea towards Sydney, Australia. The Kiwis kept thanking us for the sunshine and warm weather because they are accustomed to sideways rain at this time of year. Thank you Mother Nature for providing wonderful weather during our time in NZ.

It was a full day with stops at the War Memorial, Mount Victoria, the Botanical Garden, and a Cable Car ride up the hillside to Kelburn.

Wellington is a beautiful modern city undergoing a large scale earthquake stabilization program with 22 high rise buildings slated to be removed and rebuilt and residential homes seemingly attached only to the sides of the steep hillsides. Most of the homes dotting the hillsides are walkups (but no amount of realtor marketing could convince me that 150+ steps straight up is a good thing to come home to). Some are lucky enough to have private cable cars with over 1000 private residential cable cars serving the well-healed in Wellington.

I was truly moved at two stops today, first the War Memorial and second and unexpectedly at the Botanical Garden when I discovered the Peace Flame and in doing so the Hiroshima Stone.
Both places serve as reminders of the importance of peace and that we should move forward with our eyes on the past

“Ka kite ano”. Which in Maori means “until I see you again”.Read more