Wellington Open Day

Today Wellington held their annual Open Day, which is aimed at promoting all of the city's attractions to both tourists and locals. Loads of places participate, many asking for just a 'gold coin' donation instead of an admissions fee. We had an absolutely brilliant day, and it cost us under a fiver.

We started out by doing a guided walking tour, mainly down by the harbour. It was really interesting, and we learned lots about the stories behind the sculptures and buildings. For example, one of the bridges has carvings to represent birds and aquatic life, as New Zealand doesn't have any indigenous mammals.

Silver Fern Sculpture

The stone around this doorway came from London Bridge

These traingles represent the South and North Islands of New Zealand

Birds Appreciating the Bird Sculpture!


From here, we got the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens, which has fantastics views over the city. We walked through the gardens back down into the city centre, and it was beautiful. It's a real little oasis, and it's hard to believe its right next door to the country's capital city.

Views from the Botanical Gardens, across to Oriental Bay

An Oasis in the City Centre

Our final stop was at a very cool bar called The Library, who were doing free Bloody Marys and nibbles. I'm not convinced about the tomatoe juice cocktails, but the bar was very funky. I'm still not sure if we would consider ourselves tourists or locals, but either way we had a fantastic day!

 

Jon & Mary