Saturday – Wellington

After breakfast we headed over to Queen’s Wharf to take a ferry over to Matiu/Somes Island. The island is a wildlife sanctuary with unique fauna and animal life. The view from the top, like almost everywhere else, was breathtaking.

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We had a snack picnic at the summit on the old gun turrets silos. Afterward, we proceeded back down to take a return ferry to Wellington. We searched for a while to eat at a unique restaurant that everyone could enjoy but after 10 restaurants and no agreement from anywhere we ended up eating horribly; I’ll spare you the details…After a quick lunch, we took a cable car from downtown vertically up a hill to reach the upper area of the city. Once again, photo opportunities of breathtaking views were made available. At the summit, we visited the Cable Car Musuem then proceeded to the Botanical Gardens. The Gardens have an Observatory called Carter’s Observatory. We got a chance to look through the telescope at the sun to see some solar flares and sunspots.5361

After taking a quick astronomy class with one of the instructures, we headed out to tour the gardens. The plant and tree life here is phenominal. Strange trees and plants seem to grow everywhere and there are areas of the gardens that are so dense, sunlight nearly disappears even though there’s broad daylight out. The kids had fun at a playland within the gardens. We finshed the day by heading over to the hotel and relaxed in the sauna and jacuzzi. The pool was too cold (unheated) to swim in.5385