Day Twelve - Wellington (again)

Wow what a beautiful start to the morning. Beautiful blue skies and you just knew it was going to be a good day.  We caught the bus into the city again and decided to change our plans and try to stay outside as much as we could 

because of the weather.  We caught the cable car (which is in fact a vehicular railway but who's arguing) from the city centre and it took us up to Kelburn.  

The Cable car 

The views, as you can imagine, were spectacular.  We then decided to go for a walk down through the paths to Botanic Gardens.  This was a great idea as it took us in the shade and then back into he sunshine.

The plants and trees are so beautiful and it was lovely to hear different birds singing in the trees.  There is not much wildlife in New Zealand but mainly flora and birds and today we saw a lot of it.  We walked down through he herb garden and then to the rose garden.  It was strange to see so many roses in the rose garden, especially in November!  We decided then to go to the little tea room there and have lunch (it is hard work I have you know all this walking and talking).  We had a

Lunch

lovely lunch which consisted of smoked salmon, avocado, tomatoes and a like a potato cake thing and some wasabi mayo (which was gorgeous).  All the little birds were flying down and pinching stuff off the plates (the ones that people had finished with) and they were so tame.

We then walked in the hot houses and I then found a place to buy a postcard and stamp to send to my Auntie (brownie points there for me). We then walked back into town via a cemetery and then a little chapel which had all the details of the original settlers of Wellington and who they were and where they were buried.  No Guiles, which I was surprised as there are plenty of us in Australia and I did wonder if any of them had sailed over her!

We wandered around the town and I found some fabulous Prada sunglasses which were amazing and really suited me; but far too expensive.  The woman who worked there was so lovely and there really was no pressure to buy. It

View fro the top

really is so laid back here.  We caught the bus and I topped up their version of the Oyster card in the local shop which is called the dairy and we had an ice cream and headed off home.

We had a couple of hours to relax as tonight we were going out to The Botanist for some dinner.  I love this restaurant. It is a five minute walk from Jackie's home and it is a vegetarian and vegan restaurant, my kind of place and like I said before, it is lovely to have the choice of everything off the menu.

Take a look at their website at:  

http://thebotanistlyallbay.co.nz

I would be here every week if I lived here.  In fact, I said to Jackie that I could see myself working from there most days.  It is right by the sea and the food is absolutely wonderful, well in my opinion.  We left the restaurant and walked along the sea front listening to the waves and looking at the stars.  Unfortunately, because of the light pollution we could not see them all (unlike my time in Australia but let's face it, I was in the middle of the Outback at the time) but they looked wonderful.  I promised them back in 2013 that I would come back and see them again one day and tonight I promised them again, that one day I will be back to see them in all their glory.

Back home and I was exhausted so off I trotted to my room.  Unfortunately, not the best night's sleep (again) but that is nothing new as I never sleep well these days normally.  All in all, a wonderful, memory day.

Once again, I shall leave you with some photos of the day.

As always, with my love x

Just in case you are forgetting what I look like!

Beautiful blue skies

The Botanic Gardens - Wellington

Jackie and my date for the night

View from the top!