Last night was quite windy. As I returned from the bathroom in the middle of the night, I was sure I was walking uphill. You could hear the wind through the balcony door and the chairs and tables on the deck were blown around. But it was pretty steady without much rolling.
We arrived in Wellington, the capital of NZ, around 8:00 am. Apparently its nickname is Windy Wellington thkugh we didn't have much today. To avoid the crowds, we hung around until nearly 10:00 am. Since the port is a ways from town, a complimentary shuttle was provided. We were dropped downtown which is clean, not too crowded and offers free WiFi in the CBD. We got tickets to a hop on - hop off bus and rode around for 90 minutes. Our guide was very good. Wellington reminds us a lot of San Francisco with hills and a big harbor. Turns out we weren't imagining things. They had a big earthquake here in 1848 where many homes and buildings fell down. A ship from San Francisco was here at the time and they told the Wellingtonians that they should build their homes out of wood and they would bring supplies and plans here on their next trip. So as we drove around we saw lots of homes and neighborhoods that looked very familiar. Many homes are built on the steep hills and some have private trams or elevators from the street.
The movie production business is very big here since the filming of the Lord of the Rings series. Lots of tours feature visits to various filming sites all around the area. One scene with Frodo and others walking down a path and then hiding was filmed in a park here. But the trees weren't oak like in the book, so they brought in gazillions of oak leaves and a local karate club was hired to strip the pine trees of their needles and glue oak leaves on. Some of the karate club were used as body doubles for the stars. Can't believe a thing you see on the big screen.
We had a nice lunch at a German style brew pub and then popped into the Wellington Museum, also free, then the shuttle back to the ship. Michael relaxed in the Wheelhouse Bar with his sudoku and a beer and I played trivia with Chris and Marian. No win this time but I learned that it took 10 years to complete the Statue of Liberty (the one with 7 points on her crown and raising her right hand - another question a few days ago) so it wasn't a total loss.
After dinner with our regular group, it was back to the cabin to watch a movie. Tomorrow is Akaroa.
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