Auckland & Wellington
New Zealand
February 5-9, 2025
We left home the evening of February 5, 2025. Actually, the plane left the gate on that date, but did not make it into the air for over two hours! So that was about 1 a.m. on February 6. It was not all United’s fault this time. We lost most of February 6, 2025, in the air due to crossing the international dateline, and arrived about 11 a.m. local time in Auckland on February 7, 2025. We were glad we had decided to spend one night in Auckland and didn’t try to make a connection to Wellington today. The travel time was about 15 hours (rather than 13) and a distance of 6,516 miles.
Above is a map showing the route of our flight.
We took Uber to our hotel on the edge of the Central Business District, a drive of about a half hour, and due to the late arrival of our flight, our room was actually ready. After cleaning up and having some lunch, we took an Uber to a park called the Domain.
There we visited the large Auckland War Memorial Museum. Despite its name, the War Memorial exhibits were just a small part of the museum. The ground floor was dedicated to Polynesian and other South Pacific cultures and had some fantastic works of art. The exhibits included two fantastic full–sized Wharenui (meeting houses). We found many of the cultural items on display to have more “personality” than the similar exhibits housed in San Francisco’s DeYoung Museum. We enjoyed our visit to the museum. But it was about all we had the energy to do this afternoon.
Here is one meeting house, and below a nice carving.
We never will get a photo of a live kiwi bird, so here is a specimen displayed in the museum to show what one looks like. They are a bit smaller than an average chicken.
Saturday, February 8, 2025
We returned to the Auckland Airport and took a flight of about of an hour to New Zealand’s capital city of Wellington, at the far southern tip of the North Island. Wellington is famous for its cool, rainy and blustery climate, but we arrived on beautiful, sunny warm day (over 70F). After checking into our central business district hotel and having lunch, we took a ride on Wellington’s historic red cable car. After a ride of about five minutes, we emerged to a beautiful view of the city and its harbor below us.
This marked the entrance to the cable car at Lambton Quay.
Below, the view from the top.
Adjacent to the upper station is a small museum which explained the history of the “cable car” which is now technically a funicular railway. They had on display an original car from 1905.
From there, we entered the Wellington Botanic Garden and took the mostly “downhill path” through various segments such as Australian plants and succulents until we reached the rose garden. Here is a photo of ferns in the garden.
Next to the rose garden is a very nice enclosed green house with begonias and blooming tropical flora (left photo below). The path then left the garden and took us through a historic cemetery with graves from the mid–19th century (right photo below).
The path then deposited us back in the central business district, near the so-called Beehive, one of the Parliament buildings. From there, we walked a few blocks back to our hotel. The walk lasted a bit over an hour and a half. We managed to walk about five miles today.
To the right, the Beehive which we will visit on Monday, and
below, a nice building we walked
by heading back to our hotel.
February 9, 2025, Sunday
After breakfast at our hotel, we went to the Harborside Farmers’ Market, which takes place weekly on Sundays. It was not touristy at all, and locals were doing their grocery shopping. We then strolled along the harbor and returned to the Te Papa Museum of New Zealand. The museum was quite large and impressive in a modern building. It was the first place we learned about the official name of the country, Aotearoa New Zealand, and saw the historic quote about a long white cloud. We enjoyed the exhibits of the history of the founding of the nation, including disputes over the meaning of the founding treaty with the Māori. There was a great deal of emphasis given to the several waves of immigration to New Zealand. Another floor is dedicated to explaining how man impacted the environment of New Zealand including leading to the extinction of the only mammal they ever had (a bat) and many bird including the majestic moa bird. The final floor explored the origin of country’s landmass (Zealandia) along with native animals, birds and sea life.
Outside the museum in the harbor area, there is a small native plant bush walk. This includes a cave with moa bones.
Above are two photos from the museum displays,
and below a view of the museumfrom afar.
After visiting the museum, we walked towards bustling Cuba Street, which has a pedestrianized area and many shops and restaurants. After lunch in the area, we returned to our hotel. From there we took a car ride up to another botanic garden, Otari–Wilton Bush, which consists of the only existing native forest in the Wellington area. It is very well organized with information about the trees and plants and the preservation of the area. There are gardens dedicated to the North Island and Alpine areas. Some of the tree ferns are close to twenty feet tall, and we saw a large Rimu tree that is over 400 years old. They have an even older one but we were not sure we had the time or stamina to see it. Below is the tree we did manage to view.
We returned to the central city and took a walk through Queens Wharf and saw various works of public art, as well as some intrepid swimmers (it was a very windy day!).
February 10, 2025
We left the hotel and took a 15 minute drive to the Zealandia Ecosanctuary. We had a little time before our 10 a.m. tour started, so we looked around the lake and the lower dam. The dam was the first erected by European immigrants in the mid–19th century. We then met up with our tour group and after an introduction concerning the origin of “Zealandia” and some information about native birds (e.g. most are brown or black, many are flightless or near flightless, they are chubby, etc.) Then we watched a short movie explaining how humans wiped out many native creatures and plants in the 800 years the islands have been inhabited by people. The Māori succeeded in wiping out the moa bird before any Europeans ever set foot in New Zealand. This next photo shows a model of a moa bird.
The eco sanctuary has a predictor-proof fence and takes many steps including traps to keep out non-native animals, especially predators. We took our guided walk through the regenerated native vegetation. We were told that the 25 years the sanctuary has grown that it is a drop in the bucket of the time they need to fully restore the land. We saw several species of tree ferns, including one that grows 20 meters in height. We saw many different species of birds, both native and endemic, plus California quail (which is one non-native they keep inside the sanctuary, as they don’t hurt things). The most entertaining bird was the Kākā, a kind of parrot found on the North Island, similar to the Kea found on the South Island. Here are a few photos from the eco-sanctuary.
Top left are two Kākā. Bottom left is a New Zealand robin. Bottom right are
California Quail. The ferns probably don’t need identification.
We then strolled back to the visitor center and saw the tuatara (below) on our way, an animal that looks like a lizard but actually has its own order (that has no other animals). We then had lunch in the Sanctuary’s cafe and discussed the amazing tour. We saw a lot, but the conditions were challenging for photos (many birds were in dark trees or in dense branches).
We returned to the central business district and walked around some more, seeing old government buildings, including those of the High Court and the Old Government House. We then walked to Parliament Square and entered the Beehive, which locals think is ugly, but we think is memorable.
We then had an hour long guided tour of the Parliament buildings. The tour packed in a lot of information about how New Zealand’s government functions and gave us some insight into the country. We were told the Beehive is for the Prime Minister and the government ministers. The old Parliament Building has the working Assembly Chamber and legislative offices. Adjacent to the old Parliament Building is the old Library, which is even older and has beautiful stained glass in the entryway. We enjoyed the very informative tour.
The Old Government Building, above.
Below the Beehive and old Parliament Building.
This is decoration inside the Beehive.
Below is the Parliament Chamber.
The Old library and its attractive ceiling.
A nice decorative panel inside the Old Parliament Building.
We enjoyed our time in Wellington, had no rain and only one windy day. The food scene was really top notch. Uber was cheap (rode in a lot of Priuses). One last photo near Parliament.
Here is a map of the places we visited in Wellington.
Tomorrow we head to the South Island where we will spend 10 days.
