Wellington

My second flight to Wellington wasn’t too bad. It was on Qantas, so the plane was nicer, and we were served a full lunch because it was an international flight. I got carded when I ordered a vodka and orange with my lunch, probably because I had my hair in pigtails and was watching the Disney channel. I’m doing surprisingly well at staying awake considering I only got about three hours of sleep on the first flight. It was only three hours to Wellington, so I didn’t get any on that one.

I caught the airport shuttle for $20 directly to my hotel because I didn’t realize there were other options until I was already being dropped off. Apparently, there’s a bus that runs nearby too that I could have taken instead. I didn’t really have a moment to think though because the shuttle driver pounced essentially the minute I walked out the door of the airport.

I dropped off my things and, since my three roommates had checked in but weren’t around, I headed out to walk around the city. Wellington isn’t very pretty. Flying in, it looked gorgeous to see the islands. New Zealand is all rolling hills and houses hidden away in the trees. However, on the ground, the city is just kind of dirty. I walked all the way to the other side of the city to check out Katherine Mansfield’s birthplace. I couldn’t go inside because it was already closed, but I took some pictures of the outside. Then I headed back down to the waterfront and checked out the Wellington wharfs. They don’t seem to be nearly as big as wharves in Australia. Granted, I’m not sure where they even go.

Downtown Wellington

Katherine Mansfield's Birthplace

I passed a museum, Te Papa, that I’ve heard a little bit about and sounded interesting, but I got there 15 minutes before closing, so once again, I couldn’t go inside. It’s a bummer because the museum was free except for special exhibits too.

I found the nightlife and pub strip downtown, but I didn’t want to wander into one of the places alone, so I ended  up just getting some McDonald’s so that I could use their free wifi and calling it a night. It wasn’t until I got back to the hotel that I saw someone had posted a sign saying the Contiki group was going out to dinner together. I feel like I missed out on things before I even got here too. It looks like a group of guys went biking today as well and they grabbed dinner together last night too. I didn’t realize that the group would start hanging out before the tour actually started. It’ll be interesting to see what the dynamics are like tomorrow when everyone is together.