We spent a whirlwind day in Wellington, located at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and is the third-largest city in New Zealand. Wellington takes its name from Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington and victor of the Battle of Waterloo.

Some fast facts: Wellington has the honor of being the world’s windiest city by average wind speed (though honestly we didn’t notice the winds here as much as did in other places in New Zealand, but that doesn’t mean the fact isn’t true). In fact, the nickname for the city is “Windy Wellington.” Another quick fact – Wellington (or Welly) is also often near the top of the list for most livable cities. Lastly, according to Wikipedia, “The global city has grown from a bustling Māori settlement, to a colonial outpost, and from there to an Australasian capital that has experienced a ‘remarkable creative resurgence’”.

Our time in Wellington was, as I noted, whirlwind. We got off the ship a little later than anticipated so we (John and I) raced around the city to see as much as we could in a short amount of time. We first walked to the Cable Car station and rode it to the top.

At the top of the ‘ride’ was a small cable car museum that we whizzed through. The views from the top were great, though the ride itself was relatively uneventful. There were some fun lights through some of the tunnels on the way up – a light show of sorts – but otherwise it was just a short means of transportation to the top.

From the top, we hiked down to the city center. It was certainly a steep walk, making us glad we had opted to ride the cable car up rather than go the reverse route. At the bottom we made our way to Cuba Street, a funky pedestrian street in the middle of the city.

On Cuba Street were some fun statues and even a street performer that John had seen when we were in Auckland!

From Cuba Street we meandered to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand’s national museum. Usually known simply as Te Papa, the museum opened in 1998 after the merging of the National Museum of New Zealand and the National Art Gallery.

At this point, we had very little time before we needed to bolt to the shuttle bus stop or risk missing our ship’s departure. So we asked a museum employee where we should visit if we only have 10 minutes to spare and she said most definitely the Gallipoli exhibit. So that’s where we headed.

The exhibition documents the events following dawn on 25 April 1915, when Allied troops landed on the Gallipoli peninsula in Ottoman Turkey. The Gallipoli campaign was the land-based element of a strategy intended to allow Allied ships to pass through the Dardanelles, capture Constantinople (now Istanbul) and ultimately knock Ottoman Turkey out of the war. Here’s a sign from the exhibit that gives the ‘gist’ of it all.

The little that we saw in the museum convinced us that it would have been nice to have had more time to spend through the various exhibits, but such is life when you’re trying to cram a lot into a teeny day. Upon another visit to Wellington someday we can spend a full afternoon at Te Papa.

On our (very quick) walk back to the shuttle location, we passed by a gigantic version of Thor’s hammer, the “world’s largest Mjölnir” just randomly situated in a park by the water. That’s worthy of a photo, right?

And that’s how we concluded our Windy Wellington whirlwind adventure. 😊