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| Australia & New Zealand Cruise 2019 Part 4 - Wellington, Auckland and New Year Celebrations |
Wellington, New Zealand
We have been to Wellington many times including earlier during the year when Touring New Zealand on our way to and from South Island. Both visits had left some "unfinished business" to complete in addition to our normal walk round the harbour areas, shopping streets and museums. Firstly Pauline wanted to follow up her last visit to the Wellington Cathedral of St Paul and secondly we wanted to have an other look at the Special Exihibition "Gallipoli" at Te Papa, the Wellington Museum. It was a Sunday so we caught an early shuttle bus so we could get to the Cathedral and have a chance to talk between the first two services at 0800 and 1000. It was a beautiful clear day and we took several pictures as we walked past the Beehive, parliament buidings and old library. There were still blooms on the majestic old Pohutakawa trees and thee roses were magnificent.
Wellington Cathedral of St Paul:We arrived at the Cathedral just before the 0800 service ended to follow up her earlier discussions to once more deliver some coffee from Lichfield Cathedral. Pauline was born near Lichfield, was confirmed at the Cathedral of St Chad, and has maintain her links by becoming a Friend. There is a connection between New Zealand and Lichfield which is not well-known. Bishop George Augustus Selwyn (1809-1878) is buried in the Cathedral grounds and there is his impressive recumbent effigy resting on a tomb chest in one of the side chapels of the Lady Chapel. It is surrounded by colourful and NZ themed images. Bishop Selwyn arrived in the Bay of Islands as the first Anglican Bishop of NZ in 1842 and finally returned to the UK as Bishop of Lichfield from 1868 to 1878. We knew there had been a visit from Wellington Cathedral to Lichfield in 2002 and we were hoping to once more meet Revd. John McCaul who had taken part in the visit but he has now retired and unavailable seo messages were left. We looked round the memorabile and gifts from that and other visits.
Bishop Selwyn first purchased some land in 1845 then more was added in 1853, enabling the first church to be built. St Paul's was completed in 1866 and was the pro-cathedral of the Diocese of Wellington between 1866 and 1964 when the new cathedral of St Paul was dedicated. Old St Paul's was not demolished and now belongs to the NZ Government managed by Heritage New Zealand (similar to the UK National Trust). The new cathedral of St Paul was designed in the 1930s, construction began in 1954, and it was finally completed in 1998. The two cathedrals are very different in construction : Old St Paul's is wooden whereas St Paul's is made of reinforced concrete was designed to withstand earthquakes. The organ dates back to 1880 largely coming from the earlier Cathedral but has been completely rebuilt and extended to have 3500 pipes, 81 stops and 4 manuals on the master console as well as a two manual console down in the nave. We were fortunate on an earlier visit when it was being played during much of the time we were there. It also has the largest peal of bells in the Southern Hemisphere at 14 of which 8 bells came from a dismantled church in Northamptonshire. The other bells are new and three recast in Loughborough from bells from the previous St Pauls.
Cable Car and Cable Car Museum: We left before the 1000 service and walked down quiet streets to he cable car which took us to the top of the Wellington Botanical gardens. The view out over Wellington was magnificent as the day was so clear. They have been working on the Cable Car Museum which is housed in the original winding house so we stopped to look at the new exhibits which now include another of the early carriages, or grip cars as they are properly called because they clamp onto or grip the loop of moving rope. The lower level of the museum holds the original winding mechanism, initially steam powered then by an elecric motor and the newly restored Grip Car 3 dating from 1905 and retired in 1975 with lots of boards about the restoration. The other gripper car is still on the main level of the museum and there are plans to next restore of of the trailer units used up to 1974. The museum is free and is well worth a visit.
Wellington Botanical Gardens: We always like walk down through the Wellington Botanical gardens which have many different paths and feature areas on a steep slope above the centre of town. We try to use different routes to reach the Lady Norwood Rose Garden and adjacent lovely old greenhouses forming the Begonia House.
The Botanic Garden was established In 1868 and managed by the New Zealand Institute. which planted the major conifer species. Some of them can still be seen today. This planting was part of a programme to import plant species and assess their economic potential for the new colony. Wellington City Council has managed the garden since 1891, developing the Lady Norwood Rose Garden, the Begonia House, and the Tree-house Visitor Centre. It is "A Garden of National Significance"and was the first public garden in the country to be classified as a historic area by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.
The garden covers 25 hectares and is a unique landscape of protected native forest, exotic trees, plant collections and stunning seasonal displays of bulbs and annual plants. The Lady Norwood Rose Garden was opened in 1953 nowcontains more than 300 varieties of roses that are a spectacular sight from November to May. The Rose Garden was named after Lady Norwood who, with her husband Sir Charles Norwood, former Mayor of Wellington, contributed significantly to the d evelopment of the city. There are 110 formal beds, each containing a different cultivar, from new roses to old favourites. Other varieties on show include climbers, David Austin, and standard roses. There are also trial beds where new cultivars are assessed. The Begonia House contains tropical and temperate displays. The tropical area has a permanent collection of plants, including bromeliads and a special display of air plants (Tillandsia spp.). There are seasonal displays of orchids and a collection of water lilies at the far end.
Bolton Street Cemetery: We returned, as usual, to the centre of town via the adjacent Bolton Street Cemetery where a path and bridge over the motorway takes one to the bottom of Bowen Street by the Turnbull Library to almost opposite the Beehive. For 50 years this historic Wellington cemetery was administered as three separate cemeteries Church of England, Jewish, and public. It served the city until 1892 when it was vested in Wellington City Council and closed, except for new burials on existing family plots. The cemetery was temporarily closed to the public from 1968 until 1971 while about 3700 burials were exhumed to allow the urban motorway to be built. Most of these remains now lie in a large vault beneath the Early Settlers Memorial Lawn situated behind the chapel. This park also contains a heritage rose collection of national importance.
We then walked along the water front, stopping for a huge gelato style ice cream, to Te Papa to have another look at the Gallipoli exhibition.
Te Papa - special exhibition "Gallipoli: We again spent a fascinating time in Te Papa in the special exhibition "Gallipoli: The scale of our war which tells the story of the Gallipoli campaign in World War I through the eyes and words of eight ordinary New Zealanders who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances. It opened initially as a short term exhibit to comemorate the centinary of New Zealand involvement at Gallipoli but was been extended to 31 December 2019 so we thought it was our last chance - however we found it has been extended yet again to Anzac day 2022. Te Papa joined forces with Weta Workshop to create an exhibition like no other combining the world of museums with the world-class creative artistry of Weta Workshop to immerse you in the eight-month Gallipoli campaign. The most eyecatching part is the captures of a few moments of time on a monumental scale – 2.4 times human size. The giant sculptures took a staggering 24,000 hours to create, and countless hours were spent researching their rich histories.
But the most interesting to us were the 3-D maps and projections showing the progress of battles along with a multitude of miniatures, models and dioramas that brought New Zealand's Gallipoli story to life. This was largely the result of use of cutting-edge technologies developed by Weta Workshop best known for Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings animations. In total, 2,779 Kiwis lost their lives on Gallipoli, and many others were scarred for ever. Gallipoli: The scale of our war takes you to the core of this defining event and is a moving experience. We took a lot more detailed pictures this time as we found we had missed a lot of interesting things the first time round. I have little doubt that we will go back again in the next couple of years.
By now it was getting time to work our way back in a leisurely way towards the shuttle bus we went through the 'park' in the center of the museum and information office area where we noticed the silver globe had disppeared from overhead, a feature we had photographed far to many times.in the past - we hope it will return. We made our usual pilgrimage to Kathmandu where the outlet shop had a final, final boxing day sale and Pauline picked up a couple of shirts before continuing with a quick recce of Noel Leeming where there were camera bargains before returning to the ship.
Auckland and Devonport
On New Year's Eve the Queen Elizabeth berthed at Queens Wharf. The Norwegian Jewel was moored alongside the Hilton Hotel at Princes Wharf. There was no reason to disembark early because we were going to be in Auckand until 1630 on New Years Day. Queens Wharf is adjacent to the Ferry Terminal and the queues to buy tickets was short. We do not often travel by public transport in Auckland so it was not economic to buy one of the rechargeable travel cards. A return to Devonport was $15 with no senior concession fare for tourists. The ferry runs continuously and departs every half hour. We had plenty of time for the 1030 ferry which arrived in Devonport 10 minutes later.
Many of the shops were closed but the weather was fine for walking. Usually we go to North Head and the Torpedo Bay Navy Museum. Instead we walked up Mount Victoria, which is closer to town but higher. There were good views of Auckland Harbour, the Devonport Naval Base, and the Hauraki Gulf. It is a Maori pa site with Signalman's House and disappearing gun.
From the summit we saw White's dairy below, the one which advertises 10-scoop icecream cones for $18. In practice it is impossible to eat more than 3 scoops, the rest melt in the warm weather, and we usually only have 2 scoops. There were footpaths down towards the shop and we followed locals walking their dogs. After the icecreams we walked down to Torpedo Bay, then across to Cheltenham Beach which was very crowded. There was a nice view of Rangitoto Island and lots of families were there swimming and enjoying the sand and the ocean. With no interest in swimming with everyone we turned back and took a short detour to the Devonport Museum on the edge of Mt. Cambria Reserve, sadly closed today. Passing the dairy again there was time for a single scoop and then a gentle stroll along the waterfront to Devonport Wharf where we easily joined the end of the line for the ferry departing at 1530.
Champaign Tower, New Year gala buffet and Fireworks
Auckland - Walk on New years day
The following morning we went out just before 11 to walk around the city. Queen Street shops were open and many advertised seasonal Sales. Of the Department stores, Farmers was decorated with two large reindeer and Santa Claus but Smith and Caughey's looked less festive, partly because it is painted in such a dowdy dark colour. The Civic Theatre, Aotea Square, Auckland Town Hall and the Central Library marked the end of our walk and we came back by a different route passing the Auckland Art Gallery and Albert Park. At Quay Street just after 12 it was too early to go back to the ship and we had a look at the change that had been made to the Viaduct Harbour, including the new lifting bridge. There is a lot of construction work taking place there, and continuing for the coming year, in prepartion for the next Americas Cup Yacht Race in 2021. The Wildfire Brazilian Steakhouse and Churrasco restaurant is still open in spite of all the fencing and dust. Churrasco prices vary from $52 for lunch to $93 for a de-luxe dinner.
