Wellington Train Trip

As the Plimmerton train station was just a short walk from where we were staying, we decided to make the most of the opportunity and take a train into the capital one day. We settled Lucy into a Doggy Day Care just down the road and set off for the station.

Our transport arrives . . .

It was about a half hour trip until we arrived in Wellington.
First, a walk along the waterfront towards Te Papa Museum. Here are some of the sights:
Giant kina!

Typical Wellington houses clinging to the hillsides in the distance.

Te Papa Museum across the water.

A closer view of some of those homes.

Looking back, away from the water, towards the city and her tall buildings.

A young couple were playing this colourful piano.

The Michael Fowler Centre—a large concert hall and convention centre that seats over 2000 people during a concert.

I guess some of you may have heard the the fence of bras in Cardrona . . . but I'd never heard of this fence of padlocks! Some of them were named.

Looking back.

There was a line of containers—a few of them were open for business . . . small shops set up to sell to people as they walked by.

This was a Jump platform built for kids to jump off into the water below. When we came back later in the day, they were lining up at the top.

At the base of the Jump structure—I guess the young ones know what these all mean!

Eventually, we arrived at Te Papa Museum.

The impressive entrance to the Gallipoli exhibition.

As we entered the Gallipoli exhibition, this was the first thing we saw. A larger-than-life model whose expression was not truly captured in this photograph. Horror, pain and passionate commitment and determination were all communicated by this injured soldier's face and stance.

There was a timeline on the floor.

More large-size models portraying scenes from the war . . .

. . . and plenty to read about on the walls. There were interactive displays, film clips, audios explaining the taking of ridges, etc. while lights showed the progress of war on a model of the area—to be honest, it's one of those exhibitions that just needs to be seen to be fully appreciated. Each person I spoke to who had been through it were very moved by what they'd seen.

If you get the chance to see this exhibition, I highly recommend you do. It's truly amazing . . . informative, eye-opening and very sobering.

At the top of Te Papa is a viewing platform. There are huge glass wall panels so you don't get blown off. Yes, it was VERY windy up there . . .

. . . so this photo is taken through glass.

One of the other exhibits at Te Papa. The Britten V1000—a racing bike designed and hand built in Christchurch by John Britten and his friends in the early 1990s.

After we left Te Papa, we did a bit of shopping and wandered the streets looking for the cable car. We came across this impressive looking church—St Mary of the Angels. They're fundraising to strengthen it against earthquakes, and the fund target display on the side of the building shows them as just under a million dollars short of their $11M target. An expensive business, but well worth retaining this beauty.

We found the cable car!

The cable car rises 120m from Lambton Quay up to the suburb of Kelburn. This is a view of the roof of the cable car as you go through the entrance gates after buying your ticket.

At the top.

It's a great view from up here!

Having done only a few of the tourist "musts" when visiting Wellington, we now needed to get back to the train station to catch our transport back to Plimmerton so we could pick Lucy up before the Doggy Day Care closed.

However, we were puzzled and surprised to see a sign on our train's platform that said trains to Waikanae (our direction) were cancelled??? After speaking to those milling around, it appeared there was a power outage and trains were not able to run. After speaking to an official-looking gentleman in a high-viz vest, we deducted that not only were the trains not likely to be running again any time soon, but the buses that were to be their back-up plan were probably an hour or so away. At least. 

We were very fortunate to be standing next to a wonderfully organised lady called Anthea who was in the throes of arranging an Uber driver to take her to Porirua. She offered to share the fare with us and we gratefully accepted.

Along the way, we managed to see a little more of Wellington—the Beehive . . . 

. . . and Parliament Buildings.

And thus we managed to get back to Plimmerton for just $20. Before the Doggy Daycare closed. Lucy was extremely happy to see us—but we like to think she enjoyed her day as much as we did!


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