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 With a light rain falling, we returned to the bustling city. Our guide stopped and told us we were at the famous Wellington cable car, and if we wanted to, we could get out and ride it up to the top where he would meet us. All of us except for one couple chose to do so, so we bought our tickets (one way, just AU$6) and waited for it to arrive at the street level station. |
 It's a short ride up and down, so we didn't have to wait too long. We hopped in and took a seat, hoping to get a good video of our ride up, but a good part of it was through a tunnel (0:26) or two (0:17), or else our view was obscured by greenery (0:58). (Though we did get this nice view as we neared the top.) |
 We got off at the upper station hoping to meet our guide and the bus, but first we had to pass through the cable car gift shop. (It was interesting to see that the back in the old days, the fare was only 10 cents.) |
 While waiting for our driver, we watched the cable car descend back to the city and took advantage of the bathrooms before he showed up. (Mei-O got herself locked in a bathroom stall here, but I came to the rescue and got her out. It made us the last two to get on the waiting bus.) |
 Back on the bus, we drove past this "Seddon" Memorial. Under it is the Seddon family tomb which contains the remains of The Right Honorable Richard Seddon New Zealand, from 1893 to his death in 1906 |
 ...here, the Beehive, the "iconic executive wing of NZ's government", government offices near the Parliament Building. (Remember, Wellington is the capital of New Zealand.) We stopped for a while to take some pictures (here's one of us taken by our tour guide. These are in front of the Parliamentary Library just next to the Parliament Building), then... |
 ...got back on the bus, heading past the Wellington Railway Station, back to the pier, arriving at our ship around 3:30. (All aboard time was 5:30, so we were quite early.) |
 Before we could get off the bus, an immigration officer had to check all of our medallions to make sure we were actual passengers on the Royal Princess and allowed on the pier. Once we all cleared, we said goodbye to our tour guide and headed back onto the ship. |
 Back onboard and in our room, from our balcony I watched the InterIslander, a passenger and vehicle ferry, leave the pier for its 3-hour journey across Cook Strait from Wellington to Picton on the north end of the South Island. It was loaded with vehicles, with a lot of semi trucks on this trip (probably on most trips). The fare is around $54 one way. |
 What's this? I was hungry and tonight's dinner menu didn't look too good, so I thought I'd try a hamburger from this place located indiscreetly near the back of the ship. It was really good, with great fries too. I should've tried this days ago. It was a good option for days when we ate in the Horizon Bistro and there wasn't really anything I liked on the buffet line. A while later, when we all went to the Horizon Bistro to eat (skipping formal dining tonight), I had a hot dog from the kids section (along with some other stuff, of course) and Mei-O had this. |
 Tonight's show was "Legendary Divas with Ali Harper", backed by the excellent Princess house band. At one point, she called a guy from the audience up to "dance" with her as she sang. I didn't like her at all. Her singing was dull and uninspiring and just not entertaining. After the show was over, we headed back to our room to call it a day. Tomorrow would be another day at sea. Next Top |
