With quite a bit of rain. Nevertheless our sunny Sunday made up for all the activities that the rain may have conquered on Friday and Saturday and therefore I can confidently say that we got the most out of our weekend in Wellington that we possibly could have.
Naked Bus: I will begin with our first day there. A fellow au pair friend, Ellie, and I chose to ride the Naked Bus down on a Thursday night after work. Leaving at the normal time of 8:00 p.m. and arriving at the horribly abnormal time of 6:45 a.m. in the morning on Friday. This was not really the ideal way to start our trip but it most definitely saved our pockets from being emptied far too soon. The whole bus ride there (given it took us a lovely 10 hours and 45 minutes) only cost us $17. That price is completely unbeatable in all travel respects and so we thought we could endure a red eye bus ride for at least the way there.
For any other traveler’s considering the naked bus, although an amazing way to make it to your destination without paying much more than you would for a sandwich along the way, expect to get no more than 2 hours of sleep. The bus driver stops every half hour or so and each time a new person makes their way onto the bus, he gives the same spiel again about how you can not eat on the bus, there is a bathroom but he doesn’t really want you to use it, and make sure that the bus does not leave without you if you plan to get off of the bus at any of the rest stops. I can tell he’s been doing the red eye buses for quite some time… he was most definitely not the happiest of campers.
Accommodation: Lucky enough for me, I have a family friend that lives up in one of the suburbs close to town in a beautiful four story house in the trees that has a view unparalleled to many other views in the city. Fortunately, we were there for three days of drastically different weather and were able to see the city glazed over with a beautiful (and cold) mist from the rain, as well as the view of the brightened city from the cascading sun over all of its beauty.
This was beyond amazing being able to stay in a place like this, but the thing that I really appreciated about Wellington is the ease of getting around. Buses run constantly each day in, out, and around the city making it quite easy for visitors as well as locals to get to their destinations in the snap of a finger. Quite different from Auckland, that’s for sure.
Although there are many ways to enjoy Wellington, I will just give a quick run down of the way we laid out our trip over our three days. I felt that it was the perfect amount of time to gracefully enjoy all that we wanted to see. And as always, my blogs to follow will highlight my most favorite parts of the trip specifically.
Friday:
- Te Papa Museum
- Shopping down Cuba Street
- Movies and Delivered Pizza in bed to hide from the cold rainy night
Saturday:
- Lunch at Deluxe Cafe on Courtenay Place
- The best coffee ever (found at pretty much any cafe in Wellington)
- Thrift store shopping down Cuba Street
- The Little Waffle Shop
- Six Barrel Soda Company
- Sight Seeing
- Rugby Game Watching at Public on Courtenay Place
- Bar hopping down Courtenay Place as well as a adventuring into some hidden pubs down a few other streets
Sunday:
- Queen’s Wharf Farmer’s Market
- Lunch at Picnic in the Botanical Gardens
- Cable Car Ride
- Stroll down Oriental Bay
- Hike up Mt. Victoria
- Ice Cream and a final walk through the city
Wellington is most definitely the kind of place I would come to write a novel. Each cafe, each lookout spot, and each city destination point is artsy and quiet enough to gather your thoughts and think on the beauty of the world. I completely envy my family friends for having a small writer’s nook at the very top of their house for doing all the writing in the world (pictured in the featured image of this post). Perhaps I will visit again one day and write a masterpiece 🙂
Joyful Thinking 