At the end of September I spent the week in Wellington for a conference. New Zealand had been having some spring storms and before departing Christchurch the pilot warned us that even the flight attendants wouldn’t be able to leave their seats due to the weather. Windy Wellington definitely lived up to its name and the descent into the airport felt more like a roller coaster ride.
After a couple of stormy days, the weather finally cleared and mid-week I woke up to beautiful views from my hotel across the harbour. Although I had to spend most of the week at the conference one evening I was able to sneak out for a run before dinner.
I was able to find a track up Mount Victoria, just behind my hotel and at almost 200 meters (650 feet) above sea level, I had almost 360 degree views of the city and surrounding suburbs from the lookout at the top.
Despite being the capital city, Wellington is also a busy port with container ships docking just a few metres from the main government buildings and central city high rises.
As I made my way back down from Mount Victoria, I ran along the waterfront in Oriental Bay, and enjoyed watching everyone taking advantage of the sunny evening to get out on the water.
The conference finished at lunchtime on Friday and after spending a bit of time exploring Te Papa (the Natural History Museum), we decided to brave the stormy afternoon and took the fenicular railway up to the botanical gardens which look out over the city.
After walking through the gardens, we made our way back down towards the waterfront and stopped by the parliament building, known as the Beehive.
I then headed out to the airport to wait for Eric who was coming up to Wellington for the weekend so that we could explore the area. I was able to pick up the rental car and found a wonderful spot to wait just five minutes from the airport overlooking Lyall Bay and the runways! If you look carefully, you can just about see Eric’s plan coming into land. After a quick dinner in Wellington we headed out of the city to spend the weekend in the Wairarapa Valley just north of Wellington.