Wellington

We had another great day in Wellington. The weather was just perfect our entire cruise! Wellington has been nicknamed Windy Welly but we didn't have more than a nice breeze the day we were there. We had bought shuttle tickets beforehand so as soon as we got off the ship we were able to hop on a shuttle and head into town.

{we passed this fountain that was bubbling... turns out they were just cleaning it}

We had decided to go to the Te Papa museum first. It was pretty neat but since Grace was asleep there was quite a bit we couldn't do there. It was pretty loud and crowded in some areas so we tried to stay away so Grace could nap. There was an earthquake house and I was able to go into it. I didn't really think it felt anything like the earthquakes we have had here though.

{in front of Te Papa... Grace was sleeping}

Then we walked around looking for a burger place Dustin had read about somewhere. When we got there it turned out to be a really small place with no place to sit and the burgers didn't even look any good. So we kept walking until we found a McDonald's! The McDonald's was inside what used to be an old Bank of New Zealand so it was very pretty. I had a hard time thinking that they would put a McDonald's there! It would have made a nice museum or art gallery.

After lunch we headed to the cable car. We waited in a very long line then we were able to get on a cable car and ride it up to the botanical gardens.

Then we took the scenic route back to the city. I am just glad we didn't do it the opposite way because there is no way I would have walked up the big hills! It was hard enough keeping Grace and the stroller from taking off down the hill without us.

Then we made it back into the city and walked by some of the parliament buildings.

{This one they call the beehive}

By this time Grace was tired again. And before she fell asleep she threw her hat off again. This time we were not so lucky and never found it. We even walked back to the beginning of the gardens!

We made it back to the shuttle bus pick-up spot with plenty of time left until we had to be back so we decided to go shopping. We stopped in Border's and got Grace a couple of new books since the next day was going to be a very long day with a lot of sitting. And then we found a fancy department store. Everything was WAY too expensive for me to even consider buying but Grace had fun playing in the children's department!

And I have a funny story from when we were leaving the store. We called the elevator and when it opened there were two ladies on it already. One of the ladies was trying to figure out which floor we were on and which floor she needed. As it the door was closing she finally figured out that this was the floor she wanted. The other lady had asked her if she needed off and she replied kind of snappy "Yes, I am getting off here" and off she went. As soon as the door closed again the lady still on the elevator looked at us and rudely said "Americans." Needless to say we had to hold back laughter and didn't say a word until she was out of sight!

Then it was back to the ship. This was another formal night and we decided not to dress up so we ate at the buffet. After dinner I went to the Love and Marriage game show which was HILARIOUS! Dustin took Grace back to the room to put her to bed so I could see the show but during our last couple of sea days he watched it on the TV in our room because I had told him so much about it.