Wellington

We did not get an early start this morning. This hotel room is just too luxurious to want to leave. I think Jackson booked these at the end of the trip so I wouldn't get accustomed to the nice places and then have to basically camp on a boat. HA! :) 

Our flight attendants yesterday told us that we just had to see the area called Cuba Street to get the best food in the city. They must love Indian food and sushi because we did not find much that struck our fancy. We did, however, try the dumplings they are so obsessed with her. The verdict? Quite good!

Trying beef and pork dumplings

From there we headed down to the waterfront part of town. We got to the wharf and noticed that there were HUGE stingrays swimming around. A local man reminded us that orcas feed on the rays and sometimes there will be orcas swimming around in the wharf, too. IF A KILLER WHALE HAD COME INTO THE WHARF WHILE WE WERE THERE I WOULD HAVE DIED OF EXCITEMENT. Alas, I'm still here because no whales were to be seen. They were there just two weeks ago!

Massive stingrays!

 We sat and soaked in the sun for a bit just in case some whales came in. :)

Enjoying the sun

We took the Wellington Cable Car up to the Wellington Botanical Gardens. They were amazing.

The view from the gardens

Our first official "bush walk" 

I loved this tree

Petefish.

The whole place was so lovely

A cricket field in the distance

The rose garden

She smelled as good as she looked

I liked this tree

We hung out in the gardens for quite some time just taking it all in. You ride the cable car up and then meander down the hill. I like that plan! We eventually made it down to hill and headed back for the waterfront.

Parliament  

We sat watching kids jump off a diving structure for longer than I care to admit. The sun was out and felt so nice and the teens were just hilarious.

One of the kids was kind of afraid to jump so Jackson offered him a dollar and that was all the motivation he needed. I love it!

We stayed down there to grab dinner before making our way back to the hotel. We had fish-n-chips (I am officially so over french fries) and nachos (why did I order nachos in New Zealand? They just weren't quite right). I am actually really excited to be able to cook at home and know what to expect when ordering at restaurants again! Our meals were totally fine, but for the price they should have been better. The woes of traveling. ;)

Dinner at Mac's 

Our hotel has a pool, hot tub and sauna (pretty rare in these parts) so we visited them all for quite sometime this evening. It was lovely! We're going to call it an early night tonight to try to get back on a good schedule for the rest of the trip. Our body clocks are all over the place!