Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

What to do in Wellington?

dlwfarm

By dlwfarm,
in Australia & New Zealand

 Share

Recommended Posts

Korimako

Korimako

Posted
Posted

When are you there? Between now and 22 April, Te Papa has an exhibition of the Terracotta Warriors.

Google their website for more information.

Also at Te Papa and finishing in April is the Gallipoli exhibition - well worth a visit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Kiwi Kruzer

Kiwi Kruzer

Posted
Posted

Wellington is a very compact City easily done on your own. As well as the above suggestions , if you want something different , free tours of the NZ Parliament  are available  . They are conducted hourly and bookings are recommended .  .... google NZ Parliament-guided tours for information. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Fletch1

Fletch1

Posted
Posted

We have caught the cable car up the mountain and walked back down through the rose garden and cemetery. Not too many places in the world where they build a freeway through the middle of a cemetery!!! (you will see what I mean). 

 

Another time, we walked to the train station and caught a local train to a beach at the end of the line (can't remember the name of the place, but the lady who sold the train tickets was very helpful!). It was a very scenic ride along the coast. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kurgan

kurgan

Posted
Posted
On ‎1‎/‎10‎/‎2019 at 4:59 PM, dlwfarm said:

Trying to figure out what tour is good or if there is a way to get around and see the sites without a tour.  Did anyone do anything there that they thought was really good?  Thnaks

We took shuttle to the city, across of street from information centre took free shuttle to Zelandia park( which was great), spent there time to walk through park/forest, use shuttle move to Botanical garden ( near top cable car station), walk donw through rose garden to city. Easy day  DIY.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cruise kitty

cruise kitty

Posted
Posted

We took the free shuttle into the city, then rode the cable car up.   Walked to Zealandia (highly, highly recommend, it's like a real jurassic park but with birds)   then we walked back to the cable car area, walked through the botanical gardens, visited a lovely cemetery, & waked to the Parliament area.... very cool buildings

 

Finished up with a nice lunch & beers....  we could have fit in a couple of hours at Te Papa, but we decided we liked New Zealand so much we'll be back again on another cruise & go there next time.  Picked up some wine to take back to the ship & then headed back.

 

If you're interested I've got a link to my photo review with more detailed instructions on what we did.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Karen NY

Karen NY

Posted
Posted

We did a seal safari on a 4X4 in November and really enjoyed it. I would not recommend this if you have back issues or get car sick as the terrain can be very rough and uneven. The tour was great fun and our guide got us up close and personal to fur seals. This is the group we used https://www.sealcoast.com/

Have a good time

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Marbella

Marbella

Posted
Posted
On 1/13/2019 at 2:41 AM, Korimako said:

When are you there? Between now and 22 April, Te Papa has an exhibition of the Terracotta Warriors.

Google their website for more information.

Also at Te Papa and finishing in April is the Gallipoli exhibition - well worth a visit.

 

Thank you for the suggestions!

We are going to be there near the end of February and really lookin forward to our visit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Marbella

Marbella

Posted
Posted
On 1/15/2019 at 10:09 PM, tsutt35 said:

We did our own thing in Wellington after using the Princess shuttle into the town centre. I blogged about the day and what we did. Hope you find it useful.

 

https://tanyastravelblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/15/wake-up-wellington/

 

 

Really enjoyed your blog--cheeky and very helpful!!   🙂

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Swissmiss6253

Swissmiss6253

Posted
Posted

On various trips we have visited the small Wellington Museum (highly rate this attraction), Te Papa (just visited the Terracotta warriors - amazing.  Gallipoli also stunning).  We just did the Weta Workshop tour - fantastic.  Easy city to get around by yourself too.  One tour we did, because there was a stretch that you can only access via tour bus or push bike or walk was one called variously the Pencarrow Trail treck or the Shipwreck coast tour.  Really enjoyable, amazing coastal scenery.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Globaliser

Globaliser

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Swissmiss6253 said:

Te Papa (just visited the Terracotta warriors - amazing.  Gallipoli also stunning).

 

I wish I'd known about the Gallipoli exhibition! I saw posters for the terracotta warriors, but I've seen that exhibition elsewhere before, so I didn't look further into what else was on at Te Papa. I'd have happily taken a couple of hours out one day to see the other one.

 

Not that I was short of things to do in Wellington, mind you.

 

If anyone reading this thread wants to do something a bit off the wall, I'd suggest heading to Martinborough to do some wine tasting. It's a relatively compact area that produces some very fine Kiwi wine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Lou33

Lou33

Posted
Posted

Wellington was our favorite port and it's a perfect place to do on your own.  We loved Zealandia and the Botanical Gardens.  Zealandia was actually the best part of our cruise and we wished that we spent more time there.  From the ship they had a free shuttle that made two stops, one by the parliament building and the 2nd in the central business district.  We went to the 2nd stop where the city runs another free shuttle to Zealandia.  You can walk through Zealandia on your own or take one of their tours.  Then the free shuttle can drop you off back in the CBD where you got on, or it can take you to the top of the cable car, which is also the top of the botanical gardens.  From there you can take a leisurely walk "downhill" through the botanical gardens to the parliament building where you take the shuttle back to the ship.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
aSiAnRiCk

aSiAnRiCk

Posted
Posted

Hello everyone, our cruise is in two weeks and currently I have nothing booked in Wellington.

At first, I thought going to Te Papa museum and taking the cable car uphill and leisurely walk down thru the rose gardens and cemetery then tour of the parliament would be sufficient for our day.  But I'm debating whether we should go ahead and book the Weta Workshop tour.  But we also don't want to take most of our time in port just to do the Weta tour.  We'd like to explore the city as well!

 

What do you guys think?  We're going with HAL Noordam and will be in Wellington from 8 am until 4 pm.

 

Thank you.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dkata

dkata

Posted
Posted
23 hours ago, aSiAnRiCk said:

Hello everyone, our cruise is in two weeks and currently I have nothing booked in Wellington.

At first, I thought going to Te Papa museum and taking the cable car uphill and leisurely walk down thru the rose gardens and cemetery then tour of the parliament would be sufficient for our day.  But I'm debating whether we should go ahead and book the Weta Workshop tour.  But we also don't want to take most of our time in port just to do the Weta tour.  We'd like to explore the city as well!

 

What do you guys think?  We're going with HAL Noordam and will be in Wellington from 8 am until 4 pm.

 

Thank you.

 

 

We took the free shuttle from the ship to the CBD at 9:00 am, We had an hour to walk around Cuba street ( most shops were closed at that time of the morning), and the harbor area near Te Papa. But there wasn't enough time to visit Te papa.

 

AT 10:30 am We took the WETA cave studio Tour (there and back- includes transport from the CBD) It was a 2.5 hour tour that left down the street from the I-site visitor center. It included the The Thunderbirds tour.  Great inclusive tour. We loved it! WETA has shorter combo tours, but you will need your own transport up there and back. So if time is limited, consider taking a taxi from the Ship or CBD to WETA and take the shorter Studio Tours combo (2 hours). Then take a taxi back by 11:00am  to the CBD and you'll have the afternoon to visit other areas.

The tour with transport got us back to the CBD around 1:30 pm or so. 

We had enough leisurely time to walk over to the Cable Car at Lambton Quay and take it up, look around the museum, get pictures at the overlook and do a short walk into the garden, I felt we didn't have enough time to walk through the gardens back down to the CBD ( estimated to be 45 minutes to an hour) ., so we nixed that idea. We took the Cable Car back down, did a leisurely walk via shops in the CBD to the shuttle pickup point. We boarded the shuttle at 5 pm, as our ship left at 6pm. It was not rushed but we didn't get to see everything we wanted too.

As your ship departs at 4 pm. You'd want to be on the shuttle back to the ship by 3:15 at the latest.

So if you took a Taxi at 8 or 830 from the ship to WETA and left by 11:00 to back to the CBD, you'd have 3 hours to visit the CBD area to do the cable car and back or maybe Te Papa. You'd certainly have enough time to walk around the CBD and harbor area.

 

You might also consider third party tours (not affiliated with WETA) that will pick you up from the ship, bring you to WETA. You do the short tours on your own, and then they bring you to other places in lesser time than we took.

Wife and I are Lord of the Rings Fans and loved movie making in general, so WETA was #1 on our agenda. The Cable Car was #2 and everything else was icing on the cake.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 2 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...
2Scots

2Scots

Posted
Posted

Aloha, We will be in Wellington in early October on the Radiance of the Seas. We have been to Wellington in the past and this time wanted to do something different.

Has anyone tried going to Martinborough on a winery tour for half day?  I have found a Viator tour that takes you to 3 wineries and it is about 1 hour outside Wellington.

 

Comments are appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
OzKiwiJJ Great Review Rare

OzKiwiJJ

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, 2Scots said:

Aloha, We will be in Wellington in early October on the Radiance of the Seas. We have been to Wellington in the past and this time wanted to do something different.

Has anyone tried going to Martinborough on a winery tour for half day?  I have found a Viator tour that takes you to 3 wineries and it is about 1 hour outside Wellington.

 

Comments are appreciated.

Martinborough is a lovely place to visit and the drive there and back is very scenic. Which wineries does the tour go to?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...