Wellington : last days on the North island

Tongariro hike : a total failure

After a night in a free campsite near the Tongariro national park, we wake up early. The goal of the day is to do the Tongariro alpine crossing hike. This hike is supposed to be the most beautiful hike in New Zealand, and one of the most beautiful hike in the world. The hike lasts around 6 or 7 hours, and doesn’t come back to the starting point. Which means you have to leave your car at the end of the trail and take a shuttle that brings you to the start of it. Back in time it was possible to organize yourself with other hikers, and leave one car at the end point, and drive with the other car to the starting point, and simply drive back to the starting point once you finished the hike. But that is now impossible since you can only stay parked 4 hours unless you take the shuttle… We know the shuttle hasn’t operated all week long because of the bad weather. Indeed if it rains too much or if it is too windy, the shuttle is canceled because the hike is too dangerous. And they announce it only at 7:30 am, for the 8 am shuttle. So we have no choice but to show up and hope we get lucky and the shuttle operates today.

When we arrive at the parking lot the sun is shining and there is no rain, BUT the wind is pretty strong. We hope we won’t get bad news… And at 7:30 am we receive a text saying that the shuttle is CANCELLED because of the strong wind. So we have to miss a beautiful hike. Here below is a picture of what we could have seen.

Maider is devastated. This hike was on her bucket list for New Zealand…

But it is still spring here and the weather can be unpredictable. We tell ourselves that we can’t always be super lucky. We had an amazing weather all throughout Patagonia. We can’t complain 😉 .

Once we received the bad news, time to change plans and head down to Wellington, some 205 miles South, one day earlier than planned. On the way ,the landscape is beautiful, but the wind is super strong. We have to hang on tight to the steering wheel.

Better weather in Wellington

We arrive at Wellington around lunch time and will spend a day  and a half in total. Wellington, capital of New Zealand, is nicknamed “Windy Welly” because of the very strong wind that hits the city. Apparently it is even the windiest city in the world.

We found a great free camp spot at Evan’s bay marina. And park the van for 2 nights.

Early afternoon, we go in search for a place to charge all our electronics. And boy it wasn’t easy. Starbucks, McDonald’s and Burger King all have free WiFi, but none have a single available outlet! We find a library that has an outlet but it closes super early since we are Sunday. Finally, we sit on a bench in a mall near an outlet! Victory! We spent a few hours there charging our laptop and phone, and work on posting on the blog and create the video. Who knew finding electricity was so complicated?

We then go walk along the waterfront. Finally some blue skies!

We walk past the harbor, and arrive at the Te Papa museum, that we will visit the next day.

The waterfront is really nice. There are plenty of cute little patios or food trucks where people sit and grab a coffee.

We then walk past the downtown, or CBD as they call it here.

And then hike up the Mount Victoria. On the way, we see plenty of Victorian type houses, typical in this area, and that really remind us of houses you can find in the US. The city was actually built around the same time than San Francisco, which explains the resemblance.

And also because of all the hills, a lot of the streets are up and down exactly like San Francisco.

We have to climb a little bit ( 645 ft. to be exact) to reach Mount Victoria. The little hike is really nice in the middle of the forest.

We arrive at the lookout, where we have a nice panoramic view on Wellington and its bay.

The view is clear and very pretty.

We walk down the other side of the hill to get to our campsite not far away.

Once again, we walk along the ocean, and we can see from afar a big “Wellington” sign, where the last letters look like they have been blown away by the strong wind!

We arrive at our campervan early evening, and have a nice view on the marina. The colors of the sunset are beautiful.

We even treat ourselves to a cold beer, to help us ease the disappointment of not having been able to hike the Tongariro (we need to find very good excuses to drink here, because alcohol is pretty expensive).

The next day, after taking a shower at the nearest public swimming pool (2 showers in 5 days is not too bad!), we start by visiting the Te Papa museum. This is the national museum of New Zealand, and goes over the history of the country. We spent 2 and a half hours in this free museum (yes you read that right, the museum is completely free). And it was really super interesting. It went over history from the first Maori settlers to today. Talking about immigration, but also how the humans have shaped the nature and wildlife over the years. It offers a very nice reflexion on how us humans modify the nature around us, and the consequences each action have. We don’t do many museums but this one was really awesome. And it is incredible that it is free when you see all the work that goes into it.

We then go grab lunch by the waterfront. Today again the weather is incredible. But there is a really strong wind blowing non stop. Worse than in Chicago 😉 !

In the afternoon, we go to the other main attraction of the city : the cable car. This is the historical cable car of Wellington. And it is actually the only cable car in entire New Zealand. The ride up to the botanical garden takes about 3 minutes. And from the top we have a great view on the city.

We then wander around the very pretty botanical garden…

…before taking the cable car back down to the city.

We spend the rest of the afternoon and evening with the sister of one of Maider’s friends, who has been living in New Zealand for 4 years now. Thank God to Maider’s social life. If it were for Matt we wouldn’t have met anybody for an entire year! We spent a great time drinking beer and exchanging on life in New Zealand and Australia. They even gave us plenty of useful tips for both countries.

We spend our last night in Wellington before taking the ferry to the South island the next morning. This short stay in Wellington was very enjoyable. We loved the laid back atmosphere, the super nice people and the little streets plenty of charm.

Short video of our stay in Wellington: