To the 'Beehive' and the Cable Cars

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. It happens to be the southernmost capital of any country in the world, and has a population of about 200,000 people. 

The downtown area of Wellington is relatively small and Allie's decision not to rent a car for our visit was a good one. In fact, it would have been ridiculous to have a car. Everything we wanted to see was within just minutes of our hotel. 

We discovered that the weather is changeable. Because it's so windy, clouds and  sun often follow one another in rapid progression. We were fortunate that we never got rained on. It did get rather chilly as we made our way back to our hotel at the end of this long day, but that was mainly due to the 30 mile an hour winds that rushed down the streets between the tall buildings. 

Here we are heading to the 'Beehive.' This is the common name for the Executive Wing of the Parliament Buildings. Pictures of the other buildings that make up Parliament follow.

This one is getting a face-lift.

At a Soldiers' Memorial.
Amiri saddled up right away.

Arram was more laid back about his lion.

We have stopped this morning at a French Cafe, operated by Asians, in New Zealand. It may be multi-cultural in appearance, but it serves all the usual Kiwi fare.  The boys ate as if they hadn't been fed for days. (breakfast was about 2 hours ago) 

Amiri downed a french baguette sandwich about 10 inches long and Arram ate 4 of these mince (hamburger) pies. I was afraid to get my fingers too close to either of these eating machines. We kid them sometimes that their metabolisms must be set on 'teenager' already.

We are making our way toward the cable cars now.  It's a very clean city.

 Lots of streets in this town are picturesque, not just Cuba Street.  Actually, this is more of a lane than a street

And look who we met at the other end of the lane in the preceding picture?
Amiri's expression says that he likes this dog. (so well behaved) Arram's looks like he's trying, unsuccessfully, to pinch the tin man's walking stick. 

We're getting close...

Closer....

Ah, we made it!

This town is chock full of narrow lanes.

The cable car is arriving. 

This is the view up the hill through the end of our cable car. We see the other car on the line coming down the hill as we go up and the 'round about' is evident. 

The cable cars go underground twice on the way up the hill and each time we are treated to a light show.  

Here, Grammy and Amiri look over the city. As you can see, clouds have moved in. 

Here is the view down the tracks that we just climbed. 

In this picture, we have turned 180 degrees from the picture just above and are heading down to further adventures. There is a playground and a huge botanical garden waiting for us. 

There is our first stop. It's only just after noon and although it has become quite overcast, it doesn't feel like rain is coming. Besides, Kiwis don't let a little rain slow them down.
My next post will start here and continue into a tree house, a rose garden and another filming site for the Hobbit. We've got lots of walking yet to do.        -djf