In spite of the wind we packed up and started to make our way over towards the airport area as Kathy wanted to take in the "Weta Cave" I was a little concerned for two reasons. One, this is a Weta.
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| Weta |
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| The Weta Cave |
The Weta Cave in Miramar, Wellington is a mini-museum, theaterette and a shop in one corner of their shop. It is the brain child of co-founders Peter Jackson, Richard Taylor, Tania Rodger and Jamie Selkirk. The cave was designed to give visitors insight into the creativity and imagination that goes into crafting the art of Weta. In the museum you can see some of the characters, props and displays from the movies they have done. The more well known movies are of course, The Lord of the Rings, Avatar and King Kong.
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| Lurtz |
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| Gollum |
It was a fun morning but we wanted to get to Sinclair Head in order to hike out and see the Seal Colony that is supposed to be there. Sinclair Head is right at the south end of the Peninsula that houses Wellington. We thought we would take the scenic route that took us right along the coast and some pretty nice scenery.
The drive took us through Breaker Bay and into Maranui where we stopped for lunch. We had a very nice lunch in the Maranui Cafe where we had a window seat overlooking Lyall Bay. It was tough to move on but we wanted to see the seals. We got to Sinclair Head and was just about to make the hike when we talked to some people on the way back. Guess what, no seals. Not sure why. So due to the wind we decided not to do the walk and instead headed into town.
On the way we came across one of the 400 private cable cars in Wellington. As you can tell from the pictures a lot of houses are built into the side of the hills and the cable cars are the only way they can get things in and out.
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| Personal Tram |
Our last stop for the day was Mt. Victoria or Mt. Vic to the locals. It is a prominent hill around 600 feet that gives a panaramic view of Wellington and the surrounding area. We thought we had a nice view from the top of the Cable Car run but it was nothing compared to today.
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| Lyall Bay - had lunch there earlier today |
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| Downtown Wellington |
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| Lower Hutt - Across Bay from Wellington |
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| Wellington Harbor |
We left Mt. Vic and made the drive back to the camp. We want to have an early night as we have to get up early to catch the ferry. I am not looking forward to the trip as strong winds are being called for and Cook Strait can have some of the roughest water in the Southern Hemisphere. Where is my earplug????
Rob, you mentioned: "During the 1968 Wahine Storm wind gusts reached 270 KPM (145 Knots) which is double hurricane force. It was the most intense storm ever to hit New Zealand and it caused the grounding of the Wahine (Inter Island Ferry) on Barrett Reef in which 51 lives were lost."
ReplyDeleteThat ferry sailed a service between Christchurch and Wellington. A young woman I know was supposed to be on that sailing, but at the last minute swapped her ticket for a bus trip to Picton and the shorter trip on a ferry to Wellington, similar to the one you took. The woman she swapped with was extremely traumatised, but survived. The young lady who took the bus became my wife a few years later and is still so endowed. :))
JC Orewa NZ