Trains and Cable Cars

Civic center, looks like the ball is unsuspended but there are wires
New Zealand's Silver Fern, it was huge about 6 feet across
Roses in the Botanical Garden
View from the train ride as we are leaving the National Park
Cable car that I took up to the Botanical Gardens
The train bridge looking back.
Some of my new friends I made on a street in Wellington
Street corner in Wellington
Sadly leaving the National Park I decided to try the train ride from there to Wellington. It was like a "Magic" train compared to Thailand's sleeper trains. Clean, comfortable and lots of room to move around. You could go from car to car and there was an outdoor viewing platform that I spent alot of time on making new friends, waving at people in the towns and on the highways as we passed them and taking amazing shots of the scenery and animals as we blew past it. It was an amazing journey I am so happy I took. It took 5 1/2 hours to get to Wellington with a few stops in small towns but the time just flew by.

Wellington is a beautiful city that is compared to San Francisco and I can see why. It's very trendy and has lots of funky things to see including the Te Papa Museum which is 6 floors of history, culture, world science, stories of immigrants and the land and lots of interactive things to do. It also had a special exhibition showing a giant squid that was caught by a fishing boat about a year ago. It's one of the largest known ones ever seen.
I also took the Cable Car, which is very small in camparison with San Francisco's, but fun none the less up to the Botanical Gardens where they still had an amazing section of various Rose Bushes growing then walked thru the city past the Parliament Buildings which were made in the shape of a Beehive and thru the civic centre.