Wellington is not the largest city in New Zealand, but it is the capital of the country. In my 
opinion, it is also the nicest and most cosmopolitan city in the country with a redeveloped harbor, a buzzing downtown and lots to do and to see. The downtown area has tall buildings, the Beehive (a building that looks exactly as the name implies), parliament and even a train station. I have been to Wellington before and at that time I was struck by how smart people dress as they go about their jobs and sit in the cafes the line the streets. Most of the city has been built between the harbor and the surrounding hills which keep expansion at bay and result in a walkable city. However, the hills also serve to funnel the winds through the harbor, earning the city the nickname “Windy Wellington”. The cliffs by the ocean make landings at the airport an exciting affair because the runway starts near the edge of the cliff and is surrounding by houses on both sides. The location of the city also happens to be on a major fault line and it is expected that one morning, Kiwis will wake up to find that their capital has disappeared.
Lord of the Rings fans will know that the world premiere of the Return of the King was at the Embassy Theater in Wellington. A nearby quarry served as set for the close shots of Helm’s Deep. And a park served as the scene where the hobbits were chased through the forest by the evil Ringwraiths and it is possible to sit under the tree where they hid.
The waterfront area has been revitalized and there are now wooden piers along the harbor on which people can walk. The nearby visitor center and Civic Square was designed by Wellington architect Ian Athfield with a mix of old and new architecture and sculptures which are easily accessible from the wharf by bridges over the road. Also on the waterfront is the fantastic Museum of New Zealand which opened in 1998 as the country’s first national museum. The building and the surrounding courtyards were built on a floating platform to try to minimize the damage caused by an earthquake. The museum is six levels high and would seriously take an entire day to explore properly. Or, you can easily spend several days in the museum because entry is free. There are visiting collections (which however, may require a fee to see) and when we were in Wellington, an exhibition on Egypt was there. The other exhibits include a Maori section, New Zealand art, a section on natural history, an interactive section on earthquakes and volcanoes, and even a section with rides such as the virtual bungee jump.
The earthquake and volcano section was really interesting. I learned that the South Island has a fault line running through the Alps called the Alpine Fault. Here, the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates are not only moving past each other, they are also moving towards each other. The Pacific plate is being thrust over the Australian plate causing the Alps to grow in height at a rait of 7mm per year. But since the plates are also moving past each other, part of the South Island is moving south relative to the other. Christchurch is moving at a rate of 25mm per year away from the west coast.
One of the displays showed the location and scale of recent earthquakes and there had been a good number of them recently. When I first arrived at school, I had to learn what to do in an earthquake and where people were to meet at school after a quake to make sure that everyone was safe. But before I saw the display, I hadn’t fully appreciated just how many earthquakes occur in New Zealand on a regular basis. There was one display that included a house that you could stand in to experience what the aftershocks of the Edgecumbe earthquake in 1987 would feel like. There is a television in the room which shows the damage that occurred in the house and while this may seem hokey, it is rather disturbing to see how much damage can happen so quickly and there is not a thing that you can do until it is over.
Of course, the museum is rounded out with several cafes (which Sue discovered include free refills of coffee during your visit to the museum) and a museum shop.
Sue and I spent the morning of Sunday, 21 January exploring Wellington and checking out the museum for several hours. Between all of the sites and things to do, Wellington could easily deserve a few days for exploration. But in the afternoon, we packed our car and headed north.
Our destination would be the small town of Turangi on the shore of Lake Taupo, about a four hour drive north from Wellington. Our drive took us through the Kaimanawa Mountains where we passed through an area used by the New Zealand Army for training with live munitions. Signs along the road warned of the danger and urged calm if explosions were seen along the highway (none were). Our drive also took us past the Tongariro National Park which was established in 1887 as New Zealand’s first national park. The area which includes the volcanoes, Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu originally belonged to a Maori tribe, the Tuwharetoa. To the local tribes, the mountains were sacred and people averted their eyes while passing and wouldn’t eat or build fires in their vicinity. The Tuwharetoa chief, Te Heu Heu Tukino IV, recognized that the only way to preserve an area of such spiritual significance during the land grabbing of the late 19th century was to give it as a gift to the nation on the condition that the land could not be settled or spoiled.
Within the boundaries of the park is some of the North Island’s more striking scenery including semi-arid plains, crystal clear lakes, volcanoes, and rainforests. Mount Ruapheu burst into life in 1996 when it blasted ash 12km into the atmosphere and emptied the crater lake down the side of the mountain. However, the eruptions did little damage other than to curtail the ski season on the mountain. The area also gained notoriety as the set of Mordor in the Lord of the Rings. Not surprising, the park is home to two of the most famous tramps in New Zealand, the Tongariro Crossing and the Tongariro Northern Circuit.
We decided to stay in the little town of Turangi to use it as a base for exploring the Tongariro Park. The town was a lot smaller than we expected and without much character. The town is right near the amazing Lake Taupo and there is ample trout fishing in the nearby Taupo River, but the town is cut off from both of these waters by its location and by roads. The town itself was created in the 1964 to house workers from the Tongariro Power Scheme. The scheme provides 7% of the country’s power through hydroelectric plants with minimal impact on the environment. The outflow from the plants goes into Lake Taupo which then feeds into the Waikato River where another series of dams further harnesses the water for power. The only sign that the Tongariro hydroelectric plants are even there are the power lines which cross over the highway.
I had been to this area before in 2004 when I spent several days trying to walk the Tongariro Crossing without success due to bad weather. I had been told that the tramp was not worth trying if the weather was bad because nothing could be seen. However, I was now back and eager to try again. The Tongariro Crossing starts and ends at different points and therefore you need someone to either drop you off or pick you up or both. Several companies offer bus rides to and from the crossing and I made a booking with a company that promised to be the first bus to arrive at the start of the day if you chose their early bird bus. When I called, I was told that the weather looked promising and so I went to bed with high hopes of making one of the most spectacular tramps in New Zealand.
The cat has more photos of Wellington that I do. Click here to see them.
For more information on
Wellington
Te Papa Museum
opinion, it is also the nicest and most cosmopolitan city in the country with a redeveloped harbor, a buzzing downtown and lots to do and to see. The downtown area has tall buildings, the Beehive (a building that looks exactly as the name implies), parliament and even a train station. I have been to Wellington before and at that time I was struck by how smart people dress as they go about their jobs and sit in the cafes the line the streets. Most of the city has been built between the harbor and the surrounding hills which keep expansion at bay and result in a walkable city. However, the hills also serve to funnel the winds through the harbor, earning the city the nickname “Windy Wellington”. The cliffs by the ocean make landings at the airport an exciting affair because the runway starts near the edge of the cliff and is surrounding by houses on both sides. The location of the city also happens to be on a major fault line and it is expected that one morning, Kiwis will wake up to find that their capital has disappeared.Lord of the Rings fans will know that the world premiere of the Return of the King was at the Embassy Theater in Wellington. A nearby quarry served as set for the close shots of Helm’s Deep. And a park served as the scene where the hobbits were chased through the forest by the evil Ringwraiths and it is possible to sit under the tree where they hid.
The waterfront area has been revitalized and there are now wooden piers along the harbor on which people can walk. The nearby visitor center and Civic Square was designed by Wellington architect Ian Athfield with a mix of old and new architecture and sculptures which are easily accessible from the wharf by bridges over the road. Also on the waterfront is the fantastic Museum of New Zealand which opened in 1998 as the country’s first national museum. The building and the surrounding courtyards were built on a floating platform to try to minimize the damage caused by an earthquake. The museum is six levels high and would seriously take an entire day to explore properly. Or, you can easily spend several days in the museum because entry is free. There are visiting collections (which however, may require a fee to see) and when we were in Wellington, an exhibition on Egypt was there. The other exhibits include a Maori section, New Zealand art, a section on natural history, an interactive section on earthquakes and volcanoes, and even a section with rides such as the virtual bungee jump.
The earthquake and volcano section was really interesting. I learned that the South Island has a fault line running through the Alps called the Alpine Fault. Here, the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates are not only moving past each other, they are also moving towards each other. The Pacific plate is being thrust over the Australian plate causing the Alps to grow in height at a rait of 7mm per year. But since the plates are also moving past each other, part of the South Island is moving south relative to the other. Christchurch is moving at a rate of 25mm per year away from the west coast.
One of the displays showed the location and scale of recent earthquakes and there had been a good number of them recently. When I first arrived at school, I had to learn what to do in an earthquake and where people were to meet at school after a quake to make sure that everyone was safe. But before I saw the display, I hadn’t fully appreciated just how many earthquakes occur in New Zealand on a regular basis. There was one display that included a house that you could stand in to experience what the aftershocks of the Edgecumbe earthquake in 1987 would feel like. There is a television in the room which shows the damage that occurred in the house and while this may seem hokey, it is rather disturbing to see how much damage can happen so quickly and there is not a thing that you can do until it is over.
Of course, the museum is rounded out with several cafes (which Sue discovered include free refills of coffee during your visit to the museum) and a museum shop.
Sue and I spent the morning of Sunday, 21 January exploring Wellington and checking out the museum for several hours. Between all of the sites and things to do, Wellington could easily deserve a few days for exploration. But in the afternoon, we packed our car and headed north.
Our destination would be the small town of Turangi on the shore of Lake Taupo, about a four hour drive north from Wellington. Our drive took us through the Kaimanawa Mountains where we passed through an area used by the New Zealand Army for training with live munitions. Signs along the road warned of the danger and urged calm if explosions were seen along the highway (none were). Our drive also took us past the Tongariro National Park which was established in 1887 as New Zealand’s first national park. The area which includes the volcanoes, Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu originally belonged to a Maori tribe, the Tuwharetoa. To the local tribes, the mountains were sacred and people averted their eyes while passing and wouldn’t eat or build fires in their vicinity. The Tuwharetoa chief, Te Heu Heu Tukino IV, recognized that the only way to preserve an area of such spiritual significance during the land grabbing of the late 19th century was to give it as a gift to the nation on the condition that the land could not be settled or spoiled.
Within the boundaries of the park is some of the North Island’s more striking scenery including semi-arid plains, crystal clear lakes, volcanoes, and rainforests. Mount Ruapheu burst into life in 1996 when it blasted ash 12km into the atmosphere and emptied the crater lake down the side of the mountain. However, the eruptions did little damage other than to curtail the ski season on the mountain. The area also gained notoriety as the set of Mordor in the Lord of the Rings. Not surprising, the park is home to two of the most famous tramps in New Zealand, the Tongariro Crossing and the Tongariro Northern Circuit.
We decided to stay in the little town of Turangi to use it as a base for exploring the Tongariro Park. The town was a lot smaller than we expected and without much character. The town is right near the amazing Lake Taupo and there is ample trout fishing in the nearby Taupo River, but the town is cut off from both of these waters by its location and by roads. The town itself was created in the 1964 to house workers from the Tongariro Power Scheme. The scheme provides 7% of the country’s power through hydroelectric plants with minimal impact on the environment. The outflow from the plants goes into Lake Taupo which then feeds into the Waikato River where another series of dams further harnesses the water for power. The only sign that the Tongariro hydroelectric plants are even there are the power lines which cross over the highway.
I had been to this area before in 2004 when I spent several days trying to walk the Tongariro Crossing without success due to bad weather. I had been told that the tramp was not worth trying if the weather was bad because nothing could be seen. However, I was now back and eager to try again. The Tongariro Crossing starts and ends at different points and therefore you need someone to either drop you off or pick you up or both. Several companies offer bus rides to and from the crossing and I made a booking with a company that promised to be the first bus to arrive at the start of the day if you chose their early bird bus. When I called, I was told that the weather looked promising and so I went to bed with high hopes of making one of the most spectacular tramps in New Zealand.
The cat has more photos of Wellington that I do. Click here to see them.
For more information on
Wellington
Te Papa Museum
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