Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, is on the south end of the North Island on the Cook Strait that flows between the islands.  It is smaller than Auckland with almost 500,000 in the region and became the capital because Auckland was a bit far for legislators from the South Island to travel.  The city is built on hills rising from a relatively flat area forming the center.  From the ship we could see houses covering the hillside; they are reached by narrow roads making travel and parking difficult.  In addition, it may be significant vertical distance from the road to the house entrance; therefore, many houses have their own funiculars or hundreds of steps.

There is a wonderful museum in the center of town, the Te Papa, which focuses on Maori history and multi-culturalism but includes many other exhibits.  Just now it has an exhibit on Gallipoli about the New Zealand involvement in World War I, New Zealand women’s fight for equality (NZ women secured the right to vote many years before other countries such as the U.S.), and the Chinese Terra Cotta Warriors.  Our tour was through some of the Maori sections with both a modern and a traditional marae or meeting place.  The modern marae was designed to welcome people of all cultures.  Then we had a special tour ‘behind the scenes’ to the Archives where a curator showed us some of the rich collection artifacts from weapons to weavings (including beautiful kiwi feather cloaks).  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to photograph in the Archives nor in the Maori section—only the modern marae.  It was a magnificent tour.  Our guides in the museum were both Maori and spoke from the heart as well as from vast knowledge.

Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings, is from Wellington and much of the films were filmed in the Wellington area so another tour visited some of the sites as well as the Weta workshop where much of the props and digital technology are done. I felt torn about not going on this tour because we might have picked up some Lord of the Rings items for grandchildren.  However, we asked friends who were going to pick up anything they saw for a reasonable price for small boys, and they reported there was nothing relevant and little under $300 at the gift shops!  I certainly no longer regretted taking the tour.