Wicked Wellington!

Welcome to Wellington!

Hopping off the train this was the first thing I saw. Such a beautiful city at night!

More on this below. :)

A War Memorial outside of Parliament downtown.

Lions, reminds me of Chicago!

It really is fall here!! Crazy huh? Fortunately I was gifted with outrageously sunny, good weather.

Parliament buildings!

Outside the Sea and City Museum. It was a great time actually, I learned a lot about New Zealand history, from the origin of the famous fish hook necklaces (a Maori warrior, Maui, catching a taniwha, or water creature) to NZ's famous achievements (a Social Security like system as early as 1890!). Definitely worth a visit.

Inside Zealandia, a Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. And as NZ has no native land mammals, this means birds!! This is a kaka, or brown parrot.

Tuatara! These little guys were extinct in NZ (they are native here) until released in this wildlife preserve! These ones were in captivity (I didn't spot any outside) because of the hatchling!

A North Island Robin. These guys were so cute, following you and bouncing around. So photogenic! Not flattering though, the bugs people's footsteps turn up give them an easy meal!

Beautiful rainforest foliage.

A "Tui" bird!

This is the wildlife sanctuary I saw the above birds and plants at. It is an amazing place. It's rated as one of the best things to do in Wellington and I completely agree. If you're ever in town, it's a must see! It had excellent tramps and such beautiful birds, I only wish I got better pictures of some of them! Best of all, it was completely non-touristy. I saw maybe 3 people there the entire time I was there.

The beautiful Victoria University. The friend I visited in Wellington is studying geology here.

Beautiful orchids in the Botanic Gardens.

View in the Botanic Gardens! Beautiful bush and only 5 minutes (and up a VERY large hill) from the city!

One of the many beautiful trees in Wellington's Botanic Gardens. It reminded me of one of the Lorax's truffula trees.

Up close of one of the branches. So soft!

The view from the Botanic Gardens. Just beautiful, overlooking Wellington city and harbour.

Wellington is dotted by many beautiful beautiful churches.

Civic Square!

The ball! Floating above Civic Square this ball has become the symbol of the city. It is decorated by ferns, the symbol for New Zealand it's famous rugby team the All Blacks. Unfortunately I don't know much more about it than that!

Civic Square again. Surrounding Civic Square is an art museum, a tourist visitor's center and a few Town Halls.

Kiwis are quite less PC than Americans!

Beautiful harbour. Wellington was chosen as the capitol city, moved down from another northern city, to be closer to the South Island and the center of the country. It is a thriving harbour city, like Auckland, that is also surrounding by active volcanoes! Though, while I thought Auckland was hilly, Wellington has much bigger hills! I was so sore from the climbing by the time I got home!

The view from Oriental Bay.

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Wellington City, I love you!