We woke up early (for us) and for a while we thought we’d get an early start on the day. But then we realized we didn’t have an agenda for today, other than enjoying the lovely New Zealand weather and friendly people. So we slowed down, had a relaxing morning reading the paper, finished our puzzles, and were out the door “at the crack of noon”. First stop was lunch. The special at the restaurant just around the corner (Cafe Neo, if you’re wondering) was a BLAT sandwich – bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato. It was divine, and gave us all the energy we needed for our afternoon walk. Probably a little extra as well, but who’s counting.

This is our third visit to Wellington, and we had yet to ride the iconic cable car. Today, we rectified that oversight by taking the easy route to the Wellington Botanic Garden … in other words, the cable car. And then, after a brief tour of the Cable Car Museum (and gift shop) we enjoyed a brief walk around the gardens. We’ve been to the gardens on our previous visits to Wellington, but we took a different path this time, and came across an unusual “interactive” sundial.

It was spot on, with the shadow of Jan’s hands pointing directly at 2:00 pm. It had another interesting feature as well. The proper place to stand depends on the date, so it shows you exactly where to stand. Very cool.

You won’t be surprised to learn that I took pictures of the vegetation. I do that every trip, but this time we found a new plant. It’s called Kangaroo Paw, and if you look closely it isn’t difficult to see why.

It’s always lovely to see trees in bloom, but it was especially enjoyable today. At home, it is minus 20 C and has been snowing pretty much non-stop since we left. Looks like we got out just in time. But, back to the flowers…

It started out cloudy and cool today, but by the time we were wandering through the Botanic Gardens, the skies were once again clearing. This shot shows one of New Zealand’s iconic ferns opening, with the blue sky as a backdrop.

On some of our past visits, we have spent a full day in the Botanic Gardens. Perhaps if you have taken the time, and effort, to walk all the way up the hill to the gardens, you are damn well going to enjoy them. But if you just ride up in the cable car, it’s okay to have a short walk and then head back down. So that is what we did.

Next stop was the New Zealand parliament building known as The Beehive. This is another landmark that we hadn’t seen before this trip.

We walked around the grounds and then found a quiet bench to relax in the shade, enjoying the weather and the greenery. Wellington is known as “Windy Wellington” and today lived up to that reputation. I caught this picture of the flag on the top of The Beehive, just to prove the point.

And here is a picture of Jan enjoying the day. She’s wearing the sweater that a good friend knitted for her. It is her new favourite. (Thank you Jane!)

And now I have a question for any plant experts who have managed to read this far in this post. Several of the trees around the parliament buildings had these brown “things” hanging down. They kind of look like a broken branch, but they don’t look broken. But they definitely look dead. It’s hard to explain, so here is a picture, that hopefully might help.

If anyone knows what this is, please let me know.

We headed down to the water and walked along the harbour front. It was warm in the sun, but the breeze kept us cool … I know, such problems. We’ve been here enough that we were recognizing things as we walked. Such fun. But it was getting late … it was almost “wine o’clock” for Jan or “beer o’clock” for me. I walked over to a local favourite, the Garage Project, to pick up a beer I’d heard about. On my way back, I passed this unusual street art. The more I looked at it, the stranger it seemed. Look closely at the images around the orc riding a dinosaur. Very strange, but cool. I like it!

Tomorrow we’re visiting Zealandia for an evening tour. If we are very lucky, we might see a Kiwi.