Windy Welly

Known to the Kiwis as the Windy City, it is nestled in a natural harbour and surrounded on all sides by hills. At only 200,000 people, Wellington is one of the smaller capitals but definitely one of the Windest. The main waterfront has been mostly opened to the public with lots of bars, shops and cafes replacing the old dockyards. The northern end of the town still has a full working container Dock as well as the passenger ferry to the south island and the occasional Cruise ship, a bit of a blight on an otherwise lovely coastline.

Our first stop in town is Zealandia, a large private conservation park just on the outskirts of town that is trying to boost the natural flaura and fauna. They have put up a huge 'pest' resistance fence along the perimeter of the park to keep out all of the non native animals that have been killing the local wildlife, rats, mice cats possums and weasel. It seems to be working, the endemic species are flourishing, with lots of Kaka and Tuatara calling this place home.

Next morning it was a little cloudy so we stopped of the Wellington museum to avoid any potential rain. It is free, which is always nice, this one covered some very similar ground, tectonic plates, volcanos, endemic species and the ruin introduced pests have caused. There was a very moving exhibition on the part New Zealand played in World War 1 at Gallipoli with some very detailed histories of the young men that fought and died along the coast. Not a bad museum considering the price.

Next up is the Weta workshop, most famous for their work on LotR and The Hobbit, Weta is a Movie and Television Prob and Set Design specialist. They have been in business for more than 3 decades and have worked on hundreds of shows. For LotR they were heavily involved in a lot of the design from the swords, axes and armour that the characters used right up to the design and creation of the largest sets such as Helms Deep and Minias Tirith. As part of the tour we got to see up close some of the props used in LotR as well as the miniature sets they have created for their current run of the Thunderbirds show. Really impressive to see the level of intricate detail that goes on behind the scenes.

We also managed to stretch our legs around Mount Victoria, a small belt of park that sits up on the hill to the east of town. Aside from the great panorama from the town, the park is also popular with LotR fans as a few scenes were shot here, notably the first time Frodo and the Hobbits see the Nazgul. We spent a little while wandering around to find the exact spot, the whole area looks quite similar but we think we got it and tried to recreate the picture as best we could.

We didn't spend long in Wellington, but we both really liked the little town. It is very compact because of the landscape but it uses its space well and has a lot of delicious restaurants!Read more