Majestic Princess, Thursday 31 January, Wellington NZ

Here's our tug to help us in

Well, another wonderful day. Sunny with a slight breeze, it is windy Wellington after all. We docked at the container terminal so had to catch the free shuttle into town as we hadn't booked anything for here. I thought we'd be able to walk around, hey dad, and catch the cable car. Wellington's a busy little city on a beautiful harbour. It'd be a lovely place to live I think except maybe when it is cold and windy but nowhere's that nice when it's cold and windy!

Cuba St fountain

After being dropped in town walking was the go. Through Cuba Street and passed the funky fountain we then headed for the cable car and queued up with many other people, probably a lot of cruisers as again the Viking Orion was also here. There was a delightful little girl screaming her lungs out that we did hope would be in the same cable car as us, thankfully by the time we did get on board she had quietened down. We saw them later in the day, when we got back to the shuttle stop, and the little girl was screaming her head off again. The poor mum, what a terrible day it must have been.

Wellington Cable Car

Anyway, up the hill we went and 5 minutes later we were at the top. What a fun little trip. We checked out the museum at the top and then started the walk back down to the city through the botanical gardens. It was a pretty easy walk, especially as we were going down hill, and not too warm. Once at the bottom we were right at the Beehive/parliament house. This was something I definitely wanted to see. Mum and I did a quick guided tour of parliament house while dad sat in the shade outside. That was interesting and well worth doing plus it's fee. You don't actually see the beehive except for the ground floor, that's where you enter into, as this is for the prime minster and her helpers. The main parliament building is very english in style and just lovely. Unfortunately you had to leave your camera/phone in a locker so I couldn't take any photos!

Beehive

Once outside we spotted dad headed back into the main part of town. We went down to the harbour and walked along the foreshore there. It's been done up really well. A great place to spend time with friends and family. It was hot though, should have brought our swimmers.

Time to think about getting some wine and finding the shuttle stop so we can head back to the ship. After doing a bit of a loop we found a fancy wine shop and got a couple of bottles of NZ savvy, now where was the bus stop again?? A shuttle bus went passed so we followed it!

Back to the ship and straight to the buffet, we were hungry as we hadn't stopped anywhere for lunch. I think we were too hot to eat but now we're back on board with air con our hungers kicked in!

We sat on our balcony and watched everyone arriving back from their various outings and when it was time to set sail we were still waiting for people to get back. We could see a few of the officers down on the port talking into phones and walkie talkies and looking at the watches. Apparently a few people were 'stuck in traffic'. I think they just misjudged how long it would take them to get back from where ever they had been. Luckily it also looked like the Orion was waiting on a few stragglers so we didn't lose our tugs to her. Finally the last few passengers were on board and off we went. They didn't mess around once everyone was on board. Gang plank was pulled away, doors were secured and the ropes dropped. Full steam ahead, next stop Akaroa and Christchurch!