Wellington is only 45 miles from New Zealand, but the sea between the north and south island is extremely rough and home to many sunken ships. Our captain warned us of rough seas and we had them, fortunately for only a few hours. We docked in Wellington during the night and the gangway was lowered at 7:30AM.
The highlights of our day included the Museum of Wellington City and Sea with live documentary film footage of a sinking ship in the harbor and evacuation with life boats resulting in 54 deaths, and touring the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa where we toured the exhibit featuring paintings by Monet and the Impressionists that are absolutely stunning! All in all we found Wellington to be a rather large, somewhat dirty city and not very user friendly. Pictured is a sculpture made of wire installed along the waterfront.
Cautiously we boarded our ship to sail to the next port of Napier. I dreamed of sinking ships all night.
Gail Niebrugge, impressionist pointillism artist
