February 28, 2019
:WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND.
Our last of three ports in New Zealand. We had a great time in each port, and, overall, we just loved New Zealand. It is beautiful, the people are great and the food is great. If anyone thinks New Zealand, either because it is far away or for any other reason, is “Hicksville” or not worth visiting is just WRONG. We would love to come back.
Wellington, which is the Capitol only has about 300,000 residents, about the size of Florence. Its number one industry is tourism. We never got to see the great museum or a lot of what we wanted to see, instead choosing to take a six hour Oceania walking tour entitled “Wellington’s Impressive Food & Art Scene”. The food part is more fully described in the Exhibit attached.
We did go into a very nice art store. We bought a few minor things—one a set of wood coasters for us and another set as a birthday gift for some frineds we have made on the ship. We have been invited to a very small birthday dinner in her honor sometime in the next week. Our major purchase was a set of crystal candlesticks made by a local artist. I really like them for our apartment in Florence.
I had originally planned to leave the ship today, stay in Wellington that night and halpf the next day and then fly to Melbourne for two days and then to Sydney the night before the ship docked. I had spent a lot of time making three different hotel reservations, booking flights from Wellington to Melbourne and then Melbourne to Sydney, but we cancelled this “side trip” and elected to stay on the ship for the lhree seas days which takes the ship to Sydney.
I rarely second guess decisions, and although I am sure we will enjoy the sea days, it may have been the wrong decision. We were just not up to packing and traveling. Even though our plans to fly from New Zealand to New York for a funeral were cancelled the last minute, that death knocked us both for a loop so the decision was made to cancel spending more time in Wellington and Sydney and going to Melbourne where I had los of nice plans. Maybe we will have another opportunity.
HOT TIP: Although the tour we took was one we highly recommend, Oceania charged an outrageous amount $409 per person) so I would book a food and wine tour independently. I recommend Zest. Email Stephanie@zestfoodtours.co.nz or call 64 801 9198
Wellington’s tourism has taken a bad hit because of a problem with the Chinese, but it is still a great place to visit.The stadium was sold out (30,000 people) for a Eminen Concert which we would not have gone to had we stayed the night as originally planned, but there were many thiings we would have liked to have done.
Wellington and Auckland are both great places. They have a different character and feel. We did not like one better than the other. We give our experience in this port A.
THE END
Although I planned to send out my diary at the end of each segment and this segment does not end until Sydney, I am sending it now because this segment was so long and this diary is already too long.
Joao Martins, Photographer (Unsplash)
Comments