, once the longest, widest, and tallest cruise liner in the world when it was completed in 2003, must have been too big for the normal spot, so it was berthed at the shipping port.At 8 p.m., when I was finishing up after a long day, I could see the Queen Mary setting out to its next destination. Claire drove to pick me up with the camera and we raced down to the shore to watch it go – an idea shared by thousands of Aucklanders. Navigating the traffic and hunting for
parking we just managed to watch it turn North in front of Rangitoto Island. We also had some great views of Auckland's skyline (pictured).On Friday we raced to the airport and made our flight by 2 minutes to meet Bonnie and Phil in Wellington. Taking tips from Johannah and Scott (my flatmate in Oxford who spent 8 weeks in Welly) we trekked to the top of the Botanical Gardens, enjoyed an afternoon drink overlooking Wellington (pictured
) and sampled several of Wellington’s restaurants perched on Cuba street. Saturday was particularly a tour of notable communists as we had brunch at Fidel’s (pictured
) and dinner at Ernesto’s.Saturday night we went to see a Nina Simone tribute show – a feature of Wellingtons Art Festival (sign pictured at Wellington Harbour
) – with Grammy award winning singers who really brought the house down. Wellington really is a center of culture and arts with several galleries and show venues (pictured art galley square
) and we couldn’t leave without checking out one of them: On Sunday we spent the afternoon at the national museum, Te Papa, learning much about New Zealand’s history and ecology.
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