Let's go to the city

Hi folks, and welcome again in New Zealand :) This article is officially sponsored by happy possum.

This time, I'm taking you to Wellington, the lively capital of the most remote country in the world. And indeed, if you check the more-than-interesting Wikipedia article on the most [insert adjective] places of the world, you'll see that Welly is indeed the most remote capital on our good planet earth. I was there three weeks ago, and (as nearly everything I do), it was one of the highlights of my stay in NZ. And my favourite city so far (sorry Queenstown :'( ).

Wellington became the capital after Auckland was found too far away from the rest of the county (no, seriously, it took you 50 years to figure this out ??), and it is now the 2nd most populous city here, with 500 000 souls growing roots to survive to the ever-blowing wind harassing the Cook strait since the beginning of time.

As I did for Oslo, here are the best things I found in Wellington, without any ranking this time ;)

Te Papa Museum

Te Papa is the national museum of New Zealand, and as New Zealand is quite an uninteresting country small and young, they managed to fit everything inside a 5 storey building, as 1000000 oversized castles weren't required to display everything (just kidding) :) So, inside you'll find, from bottom to top : natural sciences, with many cool stuffed animals; humans and the environment, where our influence on nature is explained + earth sciences; Pacific and Maori culture; Art; temporary exposition. I just did the first three floors and it took us a very long time, and it was worth it. Highlights : floor-sized map of NZ, earthquake simulator and Ejaculation helmet. 

Click on the pictures to make them bigger !

Weta Workshop

South of the CBD lies Miramar, a peninsula many die hard fans of Sir. P.Jackson's movies will know :) It's the place where the studios and factory where The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit were filmed/designed, and I went for a visit of Weta Workshop, where one can see how the weapons/armours/sets were created. I won't tell you more, but it's kinda cool :) Preciousssss

Mount Victoria and the cityscape

Wellington has something quite rare for an NZ city : it's actually a real city ! What I mean is that it's not stupidly overwidespread and has a real center with some quite nice areas, and you can even walk around without having to pray God you had a car ! The center is modern and still cosy, with many shops, buildings, a harbour and parks all around. The vew from the top of Mt Victoria is just stunning. Too bad everything is built on a huge faultine ....

Welly's streets at night

But the best is that it's possible to find something to do every night, as Wellington is full of pubs, concert venues and at night, Cuba street and Courtenay place become filled with life ! Nice restaurants are also present, and the first place goes to Fidel's, for its milk shakes and amazingly good burgers !

To sum up for those who didn't understand or just didn't read, I liked Wellington a lot ! It's a must see/live/try if you're in NZ and miss some city life.

See you soon

Mig