Wellington...

Any recommendations on tours appreciated.

Nic,

It would be helpful to know the things that you like to do. There is a good bus tour that hits the Wellington highlights and takes about 4 hours leaving you time to do some other things. Don't miss the Te Papa museum. One of the best national museums that I've visited and within walking distance of some great pubs and restaurants. The Botanical Gardens self-directed walking tour is quite nice and the Rose garden is lovely and the cable car to the overlook provides you with a great picture taking spot. Do know that Wellngton is a lot like San Francisco in geography...lots of hills and they all seem to go UP!! :)

Thanks for quick response. We are considering an 8 hour tour to the Lord of the rings & the regions of wine. Also 3 hour visit to cafes and bakeries of Wellington. Quite a strech! The bus tour sounds great and also the Te Papa museum. Did not know Wellington was similar to San Francisco..We walk from Union Square to Fishermans Warf.

Nic,

We'll be there again in Feb and are thinking about the Lord of the Rings tour also. Not sure if I want to spend the $$ since all you can see is the scenery - nothing specific to the movie is left, as I understand it.

I think the bus tour I went on is this one http://www.discovernewzealand.com/default.aspx?DN=02a56094-c376-4b80-8f06-a12c238bf99a

and Te Papa has a Web site. Whatever you do, you'll enjoy it...

We will also be in Wellington in February. Thanks again for recommendations.

I love living there :)

Not sure if I want to spend the $$ since all you can see is the scenery

If you like wine tours the Martinborough area they take you to is really beautiful. but with the time it takes getting there so you will not see anything of Wellington.

I'm more for the free walking tour with some of the sites already mentioned above

If you are cruising. Walk from the ship along the wharf until you get to this museum at Queens Wharf.

http://www.museumofwellington.co.nz/ (free entry)

Fergs Kayaks is also here if you want to hire skates or do a scenic paddle out in the harbor.

http://www.fergskayaks.co.nz/Kayak.80.0.html

From here wander around to Te Papa. you can get lost in here for days. (free except special exhibits)

http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/

Next to Te Papa is the new Waitangi Park

http://www.wellingtonwaterfront.co.nz/development/waitangi/waitangi_park_introduction/

A little past this are the multi million dollar homes of Oriental Parade. I can HIGHLY recommend the ice cream shop across the road from the round Fishermans Table Restaurant

After this its a walk past the cafe district of Courtney Place and the funky shops of Cuba Street.

From here walk though the main CBD until you get to the cable car on Lambton Quay http://www.wellingtonnz.com/cablecar/

Walk down through beautiful Botanic Gardens and across to the "Beehive" (NZ Parliment) free tours http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/Visiting/Tours/

After the Beehive walk across the road to look around Wellington Railway Station (there is now a large supermarket in there to top up on goodies)

From here it is a short walk back to the ship

my 3 cents ... I hope that helps

:)

The Tepapa museum should not be missed.. (at least 3 to 4 hours) You can walk from there to the Tram. No need for an organized tour.

From here it is a short walk back to the ship

We have done the Au/NZ cruise a couple of times and always enjoyed our call into Wellington.It is very easy to do on your own.Your links are great.From Te Papa, you can take a link bus that will drop you off by the cable car and the main shopping street.

Just a tip if walking back to the ship,make sure you cross over and walk back on the side the ship is otherwise you will end up beside the stadium and a motorway (freeway) which cuts you off and you have to walk all the way back to cross the road.

The Wellington Explorer has a hop-on/hop-off bus and a Wellington Rover that does just a regular Wellington tour. You can see them at www.wellingtonrover.co.nz

It is only a five to ten minute walk from Te Papa to the cable car. On a nice day you can walk along the waterfront to Queens wharf and then cross the street to Grey Street and the cable car is at the other end of the street (about two blocks). Also the Wellington Explorer cost more than the normal buses (about $2NZD compared to $1NZD).

The city centre of Wellington is very flat and easy to walk around.

We had a half day/overnight layover in Wellington on our way from Fiji to Melbourne and our hotel was just a couple of blocks from the Te-Papa museum. I heartily recommend seeing this beautiful and interesting facility. Its a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. Our kids also enjoyed it, particulary the earthquake simulator room exhibit.

We had a half day/overnight layover in Wellington on our way from Fiji to Melbourne and our hotel was just a couple of blocks from the Te-Papa museum. I heartily recommend seeing this beautiful and interesting facility. Its a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. Our kids also enjoyed it, particulary the earthquake simulator room exhibit.

That exhibit is mighty.

Some more thoughts for cruise pasengers in Wellington for just the one day.

Te Papa Museum is FREE and it opens at 10am. It is a pleasant walk from the ship around the waterfront and if you arrive early, there is an bush walk you can do outside, before the doors open.The gift shop is also open earlier.

The Wellington Explorer has a hop-on/hop-off bus and a Wellington Rover that does just a regular Wellington tour. You can see them at www.wellingtonrover.co.nz

We have booked the Rover for our November cruise. They offered to pick us up at the pier which we have confirmed.

This is taken from my Ports of Call review back in January 2005;

Wellington

Port side to the dock. Fine sunny day with some cloudy periods.

We had booked a private tour with Wellington Rover Tours over the internet and after they were finally allowed onto the dock we left around 9am. It was the Rover Ring Tour visiting places of interest all to do with the Lord of the Rings with lunch and afternoon tea included.

Paul is the LOTR fan so I just enjoyed the day as sightseeing. When we booked we asked for one lunch to be vegetarian but when lunch was set up there was no vegetarian sandwiches provided. Another person on the tour, also from the ship, had specified no pork and most of the sandwiches had either ham or bacon on them! When we told the guide of our problem he just shrugged and said ‘oh well’. No apology or ‘sorry’… We paid NZ$150 each for this tour and to me that is just NOT good enough!

Lunch seemed rushed to me and there was no afternoon tea stop at all. The guide did take us to Te Papa to the shop there which sells LOTR souvenirs but he gave us just 15 mins. He didn’t have to take us there but we had time since we didn’t stop for afternoon tea so it was the least he could have done, we got back to the ship at 4:30pm. I would only recommend this tour to diehard LOTR fans.

We had bagpipers send us off.

Two and a half years later and I still feel the same. The tour was really mostly sightseeing with places of interest from the movie thrown in. I still remember the family of four that also took this tour that were not happy with it. The wife/mother asked to be dropped off in the city before lunch because she hated sitting in the back of the mini bus and didn't like any of the tour up to that point... her choice of course.

The TePapa museum was great... what little we saw of it. My recommendation, for what it's worth, would be take a morning tour and then get dropped off at the museum afterwards and then do that on your own, then when you're ready you can walk back to the ship or catch one of the shuttles, definately worth more than a 15 minute look.

Kim

I was going to do a ship walking tour, but it was much more expensive than doing the Wellington Walks.. It is $l5 for the tour I believe. I already booked it on-line. Then I may do a guided tour with the Time Warp at Te Papa.

I can't wait!!!!!

If you want to do something a bit different, how about a Segway tour round Wellington. Tony (the guy who runs it) only takes 4 people on the tour which lasts about 2 1/2 hrs ( incl 20 mins training). We went along the waterfront, up to St Johns Cathedral, past the new (ugly) cathedral, past the Parliament buildings and up to the rose garden in the Botanical Gardens for a break, then back down to Civic Sq...and still had time to get the cable car back up to the botanical gardens and observatory afterwards. We have done a couple of Segway tours, but this was the best one. Book it through the Wellington I site.

http://www.bodyelectric.co.nz/what.htm

http://www.wellingtonnz.com/BookingsVisitorCentre/

Simon