We spent the afternoon of 16th March in Wellington. It is renowned for its bad weather but we were lucky to be there on one of the few sunny days they have had this year. It is a colourful city.

It is also a very hilly city and it has a public tram to take you the botanical gardens on the hill.

There are great views from the tram stop at the top of the hill.

The city also has about 400 private cable cars. These are installed in private residences and in many cases are the only form of access. They have allowed people to build houses on plots previously inaccessible by road.

Wellington also is home to New Zealand’s distinctive Parliament building which is known as the Beehive.

It sits next to the Parliament offices and library.

Across the road is one of the old Government offices. Although it looks stone clad, it is actually built entirely of wood.

It is now the law department of Victoria University. The city also has a popular waterfront.

Which is also home to the world’s only remaining working steam crane. It is over 80 years old and was built in Glasgow.

There is also a diving board.

My favourite was the New Zealand National Museum (www.tepapa.govt.nz), in particular its Gallipoli exhibition which includes the stories of eight individuals. The individuals in each story are captured in frighteningly human models which are two and a half times human size.

The models were made by Peter Jackson (director of Lord of the Rings trilogy) and took 24,000 hours to complete. The scale of the models can be seen in this picture. (This lady ignored the Don’t Touch sign)

On the 17th March we caught the morning ferry from Wellington to Picton on the South island.