Wellington, New Zealand

My DH and I will be cruising in Oct. and have a day Wellington. Looking for ideas on what to do. Do we want to rent a car and do our own thing? Take a tour? We are open, love the outdoors, animals...etc.

Thanks in advance!:p

You might have more luck posting this on the Australia/NZ section

Cable car and Te Papa Museum well worth doing. There will be tour operators in the terminal and you could say do a half day tour which will take in the cable car, botanic gardens, bay areas and lookout. Then spend the rest of the day at Te Papa. You can catch a shuttle from city centre back to ship when finished.

Hi,

I just came back from a cruise on Voyager to NZ a few weeks ago.

Loved Wellington, it was such a tidy & clean city.

We left the ship around 9am, walked to the city centre - about 10 minutes & took the tram up to the top of the botanic gardens (cost was about $6NZ each I think.)

They have a Planetarium there which we missed but will do next time, I think we may be on your repositioning cruise - Hawaii to Sydney leaving Honolulu 23 Sept?

We walked down through the gardens which were very nice & then ended up back in town.

We caught a taxi to the Te Papa Museum which is all about NZ both past & present, where we had a light lunch & spent the rest of the day there looking at all the exhibits & did some of the interactive simulaters they offer which was fun.

We caught a taxi back to the ship in time for dinner but you can walk it if you aren't in a hurry.

The museum is free to enter- rides cost extra.

The ship does numerous tours around the area inlcluding 1 I recall to scenes of the Lord of the Rings movies, but you can easily spend the day right in town for little cost.

Hope that's helpful.:)

My DH and I will be cruising in Oct. and have a day Wellington. Looking for ideas on what to do. Do we want to rent a car and do our own thing? Take a tour? We are open, love the outdoors, animals...etc. Thanks in advance!:p

Wellington is a very compact city and its easy to do your own thing.

Unlesss you are looking to go further afield than the City...

you do not need to rent a car .

The roads are steep, narrow and winding. Parking is a nightmare and the locals drive like maniacs....its hard enough for pedestrians to cross the road.:D

Its a lovely City with lots to see and enjoy .A very pleasant day can be had by all.

Check out some of the threads on this board for ideas , some of which could include

Te Papa Museum..a must see

Cable Car

Mt Victoria

Zealandia

Thanks everyone!! Taking notes on everything. Sept. can't get here fast enough:p

Just off the Solstice two weeks ago.

We did our own thing in Wellington.

Took the port's shuttle to town ($10pp), then a short walk to the cable car station. Up to Mount Victoria look out by cable car (one way $7pp).

Enter the botanical garden (free), pleasant walk downhill with beautiful natural surrounding. En route stop at the Rose Garden (and beautiful begonia, too). Continue downhill until arrive at the town again and .... voila! The beehive (parliament building) just in front of us for a photo opt!

We didn't visit the museum, though.

A stroll on the busy street brinfs us back to the bus stop and shuttle back to the ship happily, on time for lunch on board.

Caveat: it can be a long wait for the cable car, especially if there are more than one ship at the port. Start early to avoid the crowds.

Enjoy your cruise!

You mention you like the outdoors and nature - Zealandia would be a great spot for you. It's 10 minutes from downtown Wellington and there's a free shuttle from the i-SITE Information centre or from the top of the Cable Car. Zealandia is a valley with a 500 year plan to restore this area back to the way it was before humans arrived in NZ. On a bad day, you can spend time in the exhibition centre - it's interactive displays do a great job of explaining the uniqueness of NZ's environment followed by a coffee overlooking the lake. On a good day, there's over 30km of pretty easy tracks to wander to spot native birds, plants and the tuatara. I'd allow 3 hours - 60 minutes in the centre and at least two hours to walk along the paths, past the tuatara and kaka spots and up to the first reservoir for some really pretty views and photos. Check out www.visitzealandia.com for more information.

Just in addition to my post - the cable cars came every 10 minutes or so & we were there early & the wait wasn't very long, we even opted to miss a ride as it was crowded & waited inside on the platform for the next one.

If you get there later though as one of the previous posters mentioned who may have to line up to get your ticket for longer.

The other thing - which is in no way a slight on NZ but something I noticed, is that if you are into seeing animal wildlife like you do in Australia, the US, etc then you will find NZ wildlife a bit sparse.

There are no native mammals to see roaming the hills, only bird life & reptiles/insects.

Just thought I should mention it as you mentioned animals along with the outdoors (which is beautiful) as being things of interest.:)

Good points Avalon - NZ's environment is completely different to the rest of the world as we parted from the super-continent about the time mammals started to evolve. Zealandia does a brilliant job of explaining this - why our birds took on the role of mammals, why tuatara are the closest living animal to the dinosaur and why the kiwi gave up flying. On the bright side, that means we missed out on everything poisonous and carnivorous too!

The museums are free and well worth going to. The Botanical Gardens were very interesting to walk through. Free wifi all along the waterfront.

Another "free attraction" is the tour of Parliament Buildings. Every afternoon on the hour for a 1 hour tour.

I thought it would be a bit ho hum, but found it to be a fascinating experience.

If you are interested , just google NZ Parliament....Visitors Centre ,for more information .

You mention you like the outdoors and nature - Zealandia would be a great spot for you. It's 10 minutes from downtown Wellington and there's a free shuttle from the i-SITE Information centre or from the top of the Cable Car. Zealandia is a valley with a 500 year plan to restore this area back to the way it was before humans arrived in NZ. On a bad day, you can spend time in the exhibition centre - it's interactive displays do a great job of explaining the uniqueness of NZ's environment followed by a coffee overlooking the lake. On a good day, there's over 30km of pretty easy tracks to wander to spot native birds, plants and the tuatara. I'd allow 3 hours - 60 minutes in the centre and at least two hours to walk along the paths, past the tuatara and kaka spots and up to the first reservoir for some really pretty views and photos. Check out www.visitzealandia.com for more information.

I lived in Wellington in 2007 and loved Karori! It looks like they've done a lot to develop it further - I like the "Zealandia" concept! I have to say, Wellington is the only city I've visited around the world where I would happily go to live out the rest of my days. I loved how compact and easy the city was to traverse, loved living a block away from the Beehive - just my favorite New Zealand city by far. :-)

I am in the planning stages for my upcoming cruise and want to make the most of my time in each port. So happy to stumble on this thread. I can see that I will be doing Wellington on my own, not on a ship excursion!

We will be visiting Sydney and taking the 13 day NZ cruise on the ROS next March and have signed up for the Zealandia Tour

We also did Wellington in the spring. I had contacted Te Papa museum and arranged for a guided tour for about $15 NZD. We needed about 8 people to make this a go and it was well worth it. We took cabs from the dock and arranged to have the tour begin about 30 minutes before the museum opened. I advertised it on our Roll Call. After the tour, we all went our own way. We did the shopping district where the cable car is, got off at the top and went to the Botanical Gardens. We walked back to the ship. A great day