Francesca and Henk-Jan's Backpacking Trip!
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Exploring Wellington
Hi there everyone! Francesca here.
Well, we have ended up staying WAY longer in Wellington than we planned. That is what is fantastic about the way we are traveling; if we really like a certain area, we can adjust our plans to explore it more! Nothing is set in stone. :P Thankfully, tonight being our 6th night, we get a bit of a discount here at Wellywood – not much, but every bit counts on a trip this long!
Let me tell you about our day of exploration here in Wellington. We managed to get started around noon with a visit back to (our now favourite spot) Great India for a delicious and filling lunch. For only $10 NZD (that’s about $6.30 USD) they give you a curry entrée, your choice of rice (delicious coconut rice for us!) and two huge pieces of naan bread. Definitely much better than fast food, yet costs about the same...
Next we strolled through the main shopping and entertainment areas of Wellington – filled with a ton of young, modern clothing stores and an eclectic mix of cuisines to sample. In a strange way, the artsy yet hip spirit reminded me of a downtown Manhattan Soho vibe… without so much ‘hustle and bustle,’ of course. We took our time walking, arriving at our destination a little under two hours after we started.
That destination was the famously old (over 100 years old!) Wellington cable car! On our first evening in Wellington, the hostel receptionist suggested we take the 5 minute cable car ride up to the top. At the end of the car ride sits a museum dedicated to the history of the Cable Car, which we’d be sure to go see in order to complete our experience.
A little of what we learned from the museum: The Wellington Cable Car was thought up in 1898 by the Directors of The Upland Estate Company to provide transport facilities in the form of a Cable tram between their proposed residential subdivision and the City. Once approved, the real work began on the tram line in 1899 using prison labour from The Terrace Gaol. Three shifts worked around the clock to construct the system, digging 3 tunnels via pick and shovel. Finally, in 1902, work is completed and the Cable Car starts operation and proves an instant success with over 425,000 passenger trips on the cable car in the first year.
One of the issues the Cable Car had to deal with was the dramatic difference between demand for uphill and downhill tickets. A hundred years ago, many people who dreaded the steep hike up (and would thus take the car) enjoyed the walk down (passing on taking the car for a scenic stroll) – thus the company charged only half-price for tickets down. We had bought return tickets, however once we reached the top, we decided to follow suit with those from the past and take the 40 minute walk down to the city through the Wellington Botanical Gardens instead.
Divided into various sections, the walk downhill through the gardens was beautiful. There was even a section dedicated to endangered and rare plants; we couldn’t resist taking pictures of the weirdest ones! After a while we found a playground with some slides, which I jumped in with a passion. Unfortunately, I did not listen to Henk's warning that the slide would be wet from the rain...
Around halfway through our walk we came across a duck pond. I tried to ‘play’ with the ducks (although, for some reason, they didn’t seem to like me that much!) as Henk looked on and took pictures. I would love to have spent more time in the gardens, however, it was a rainy day and thus we tried not to take too much time and risk being stuck in a downpour. We hurried down the pathway, crossed through a memorial park (a.k.a. a graveyard!) and made our way to the Beehive.
The ‘Beehive’ is the nickname for New Zealand’s parliament building in Wellington. Obviously, the building is named for its looks! Here I am attempting to buzz like a bee outside it. Every hour, free tours are offered at the Beehive, and we just ended up making the 3:00 pm tour. For still being under the executive crown of the British government, New Zealand sure has quite a lot of national representation for their citizens. For the 4 million inhabitants of New Zealand, there are 120 representatives in their unicameral parliament.
New Zealand’s political system works like this: every Kiwi is allowed two votes during their elections. The first is a party vote – you pick a party to represent your views. Second is a representative vote, or a vote for the person you would like to represent your area. This system, we were informed, allows for a very diverse representative house, with a lot of minority parties gaining seats and thus a voice for their views.
Being such a small nation has even more advantages on the political sphere for minorities. The parliament holds regular committee meetings on certain bills before they are put up to vote, and during these meetings, the details of the law are negotiated. Notices for these committee meetings are printed in newspapers, and anyone with a strong view on a certain issue can write in and request to be put in a ‘lottery’ of sorts for the particular meeting. If you are selected, you are granted a 20-minute presentation in front of the politicians writing the bill stating your own views, complete with a Q & A session on bill particulars with them. Usually, we were told by our guide, bills are not changed in any major way as a result of these presentations but are very often edited in minor ways to address citizens’ concerns.
We were brought all over the Beehive – into the committee meeting rooms, through the Maori decorated halls and gothic-themed entrance ways, the politicians’ research libraries, and even down to the floor of the House of Representatives itself. While we were on the floor, our guide explained the two ways their politicians vote on bills. One was the familiar ‘party vote,’ (a.k.a. ‘I vote the way my party tells me to vote’) and the second was a ‘conscience vote.’ The latter involves each member of parliament getting up from their seats during the vote and choosing in front of their peers to either walk through the door on the left to vote ‘Noes,’ or the door on the right for ‘Ayes.’ I was thoroughly impressed by the amount of representation New Zealanders seem to have by the time the tour concluded.
On the way home, we grabbed some hot chocolate from Starbucks and feasted on our brownies leftover from the LOTR tour the day before. We decided to relax that evening and watch Tropic Thunder! From our time here in Wellington, I can conclude that Wellington is an awesome city… AND you guys should really come check it out!!
Francesca
Well, we have ended up staying WAY longer in Wellington than we planned. That is what is fantastic about the way we are traveling; if we really like a certain area, we can adjust our plans to explore it more! Nothing is set in stone. :P Thankfully, tonight being our 6th night, we get a bit of a discount here at Wellywood – not much, but every bit counts on a trip this long!
Let me tell you about our day of exploration here in Wellington. We managed to get started around noon with a visit back to (our now favourite spot) Great India for a delicious and filling lunch. For only $10 NZD (that’s about $6.30 USD) they give you a curry entrée, your choice of rice (delicious coconut rice for us!) and two huge pieces of naan bread. Definitely much better than fast food, yet costs about the same...
Next we strolled through the main shopping and entertainment areas of Wellington – filled with a ton of young, modern clothing stores and an eclectic mix of cuisines to sample. In a strange way, the artsy yet hip spirit reminded me of a downtown Manhattan Soho vibe… without so much ‘hustle and bustle,’ of course. We took our time walking, arriving at our destination a little under two hours after we started.
That destination was the famously old (over 100 years old!) Wellington cable car! On our first evening in Wellington, the hostel receptionist suggested we take the 5 minute cable car ride up to the top. At the end of the car ride sits a museum dedicated to the history of the Cable Car, which we’d be sure to go see in order to complete our experience.
A little of what we learned from the museum: The Wellington Cable Car was thought up in 1898 by the Directors of The Upland Estate Company to provide transport facilities in the form of a Cable tram between their proposed residential subdivision and the City. Once approved, the real work began on the tram line in 1899 using prison labour from The Terrace Gaol. Three shifts worked around the clock to construct the system, digging 3 tunnels via pick and shovel. Finally, in 1902, work is completed and the Cable Car starts operation and proves an instant success with over 425,000 passenger trips on the cable car in the first year.
One of the issues the Cable Car had to deal with was the dramatic difference between demand for uphill and downhill tickets. A hundred years ago, many people who dreaded the steep hike up (and would thus take the car) enjoyed the walk down (passing on taking the car for a scenic stroll) – thus the company charged only half-price for tickets down. We had bought return tickets, however once we reached the top, we decided to follow suit with those from the past and take the 40 minute walk down to the city through the Wellington Botanical Gardens instead.
Divided into various sections, the walk downhill through the gardens was beautiful. There was even a section dedicated to endangered and rare plants; we couldn’t resist taking pictures of the weirdest ones! After a while we found a playground with some slides, which I jumped in with a passion. Unfortunately, I did not listen to Henk's warning that the slide would be wet from the rain...
Around halfway through our walk we came across a duck pond. I tried to ‘play’ with the ducks (although, for some reason, they didn’t seem to like me that much!) as Henk looked on and took pictures. I would love to have spent more time in the gardens, however, it was a rainy day and thus we tried not to take too much time and risk being stuck in a downpour. We hurried down the pathway, crossed through a memorial park (a.k.a. a graveyard!) and made our way to the Beehive.
The ‘Beehive’ is the nickname for New Zealand’s parliament building in Wellington. Obviously, the building is named for its looks! Here I am attempting to buzz like a bee outside it. Every hour, free tours are offered at the Beehive, and we just ended up making the 3:00 pm tour. For still being under the executive crown of the British government, New Zealand sure has quite a lot of national representation for their citizens. For the 4 million inhabitants of New Zealand, there are 120 representatives in their unicameral parliament.
New Zealand’s political system works like this: every Kiwi is allowed two votes during their elections. The first is a party vote – you pick a party to represent your views. Second is a representative vote, or a vote for the person you would like to represent your area. This system, we were informed, allows for a very diverse representative house, with a lot of minority parties gaining seats and thus a voice for their views.
Being such a small nation has even more advantages on the political sphere for minorities. The parliament holds regular committee meetings on certain bills before they are put up to vote, and during these meetings, the details of the law are negotiated. Notices for these committee meetings are printed in newspapers, and anyone with a strong view on a certain issue can write in and request to be put in a ‘lottery’ of sorts for the particular meeting. If you are selected, you are granted a 20-minute presentation in front of the politicians writing the bill stating your own views, complete with a Q & A session on bill particulars with them. Usually, we were told by our guide, bills are not changed in any major way as a result of these presentations but are very often edited in minor ways to address citizens’ concerns.
We were brought all over the Beehive – into the committee meeting rooms, through the Maori decorated halls and gothic-themed entrance ways, the politicians’ research libraries, and even down to the floor of the House of Representatives itself. While we were on the floor, our guide explained the two ways their politicians vote on bills. One was the familiar ‘party vote,’ (a.k.a. ‘I vote the way my party tells me to vote’) and the second was a ‘conscience vote.’ The latter involves each member of parliament getting up from their seats during the vote and choosing in front of their peers to either walk through the door on the left to vote ‘Noes,’ or the door on the right for ‘Ayes.’ I was thoroughly impressed by the amount of representation New Zealanders seem to have by the time the tour concluded.
On the way home, we grabbed some hot chocolate from Starbucks and feasted on our brownies leftover from the LOTR tour the day before. We decided to relax that evening and watch Tropic Thunder! From our time here in Wellington, I can conclude that Wellington is an awesome city… AND you guys should really come check it out!!
Francesca
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