Day 28 Wellington, New Zealand

Today we visited the capital city of New Zealand, Wellington. As it turns out the capital is located on this southern tip of the north island as an appeasement to the southern islanders, who at one time considered becoming their own country. By moving the capital closer to them it was enough to elicit their continued loyalty.
It is a nice enough town although there is nothing I found striking about it. It probably didn't help that the day was overcast with intermittent showers. This city and its surrounding area account for over 11% of the population of the country. It is located in the Cook Straight which separates the north and south islands. This straight can be very rough piece of water since it acts as a funnel for wind and waves. Here as before on our other stops in NZ we found the British influence with lovely gardens and clean streets. There was a very lively downtown area with a good deal of foot traffic. Some of that was no doubt from passengers from this ship, but as we were the only cruise ship in port and only carrying 400 passengers we by no means were a noticeable part of the volume. The port seemed to cater to container vessels as well as a significant amount of lumber that we were told was generally destined for Japan and China.
Tomorrow is a sea day.

Chris - Happy with "Kids" - As Paul mentioned we were in Wellington today, but he didn't mention we spent the day with the two "kids " we're so fond of from the entertainment staff. Sarah and Adam are between Tracy and Patrick's age and are so sweet and fun. They are from England and found today's weather reminiscent of home. We wanted to take them to eat as I remember how happy Stephan always was when he could eat off the ship. We ate down by the water at a nice restaurant and although we sat next to the harbour there was plastic on the windows and ceiling and with the wind it sounded like the roof was going to collapse! Funny NZ was thrilled to have been getting rain the last 4 days (unlike us) as at least in Christchurch and Wellington they hadn't had rain in 4 weeks! Today the rain looked threatening but actually it didn't rain very hard or for very long when we were out and about. After we ate we then took the cable car up 610 meters to the top and enjoyed the expansive views of Wellington. It was very nice that when we got up there the clouds parted and we had a small bit of sunshine. We then toured the botanical gardens as we leisurely walked back down to the city. The gardens today differed a great deal from yesterday. As a lot of the flowers were the same the layout was very different. Yesterday the gardens were flat and you walked along different paths...including one along the river. Today the gardens were built into the hillside and other than a duck pond there was no water. The maps looked like you could wonder around the garden on top of the hill, but in reality as you walked you immediately started going down toward the city. The flowers were beautiful but the trees and setting much more rustic than yesterday. It was a joy to spend the day with Adam and Sarah and we actually will have dinner with the tonight as well. Adam had mentioned he liked Crepes Suzette and he can't order them as they can't do any special orders since they're staff. So we invited them to dine with us and WE could order them to be made table side. They are planning to come to the US in October and maybe some of you will get a chance to meet them. I hope our kids can at least.