Friday – October 26, 2018
We enjoyed a “Sea Day” yesterday as the Majestic Princess traveled down the eastern coast of the North Island from Tauranga to the capital city of Wellington. The seas were calm and the weather was pleasant: 58 degrees F. The ship tied up at the commercial dock where we had a good view of the harbor. A ferry boat in the photo below:
The ship is sooo big that it’s difficult to get a good picture of it unless I’m far away. I took the photo below from the ground looking up toward the middle of the ship. The “bump out” at the top is called “The Sky Walk.” It has a glass floor so passengers can look out and down to the water when we’re out at sea.
We didn’t sign up for an excursion because we wanted to walk around and explore Wellington on our own. A shuttle bus took us to the center of the city. The Parliament buildings are in the photo below. The new round structure is called “The Bee Hive” for obvious reasons.
We walked to the famous Museum of New Zealand also known as Te Papa Tongarewa. We really needed more than a day to see the entire museum, so we tried to see as much as we could in a short amount of time.
Te Papa had an excellent Maori section and interactive exhibits of contemporary art. The building itself was an interesting artistic creation. It’s located on Wellington’s harbor:
Later, we walked over to Cuba Street to find a place for lunch. There were many ethnic restaurants: Thai, Chinese, Mexican, Turkish, etc. We had meat and shepherd’s pies at J. J. Murphy’s Irish Pub. We didn’t have time to sample Wellington’s coffee which is supposed to be among the best coffee in the world. According to New Zealanders.
I took the photo below from the ship.
The Majestic Princess was ready to leave the harbor about six o’clock and it passed through the narrow inlet and back into the Pacific Ocean. Tomorrow we’ll be in the South Island town of Akaroa.
