On our final day in Wellington we visited the Wellington Botanic Gardens, right at the entry/exit of the Wellington Cable Car. I mention the Cable Car because it is a very convenient and interesting way to get from the city centre to the garden. If you don’t like heights then it’s probably best to avoid. The garden is open from dawn to dusk with some exceptions, i.e. the cafe in the rose garden and tree top information centre. If you are visiting, I strongly recommend going on the website to check when everything is open.Read More »

Today was the day we visited Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa), the Museum of New Zealand. I had incredibly high expectations as I’ve heard nothing but amazing things. I am happy to say that Te Papa definitely lived up to these expectations and in some areas, exceeded them. We spent most of the day exploring the museum and its numerous fascinating exhibitions that are spread over five levels. The day included a highlights tour, a walk through most permanent exhibition spaces, and a visit to the travelling exhibition Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality. Similar to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, I am going to provide an overview of how we spent our day.

10.00 am

Te Papa doesn’t technically open until 10.00 am (everyday except Christmas Day). We arrived at 9.50 am so that I could take a few photographs of the exterior. We were surprised to discover that the museum had already opened – well not all of it. The cloakroom and ticket desks were open, but, the exhibitions were still roped off. Still, this is a great idea to ease crowd congestion building up outside before the museum officially opens and stagger the groups of people arriving wanting to cloak/buy tickets.Read More »

I have absolutely fallen in love with Wellington. And I’m saying this before having visited Te Papa, aka the main reason why we’ve come here. I literally select my next holiday destination based on what museums I am really wanting to visit. As well as Te Papa, I was looking forward to visiting the Wellington Museum which is located in the old Bond Store on Wellington’s waterfront. Originally, the building housed a small maritime collection. Over time, however, it has been transformed into a museum that tells the story of Wellington.

Like quite a few museums I have reviewed in the past, the only significant issue I had with this museum was that it was text-heavy. I was pretty much finished with reading after the first level. In saying this, however, there were some really interesting labels – I’ll talk more about this later. I’m going to go level-by-level and comment on a few highlights.Read More »