Easter in Wellington: Cable cars, Museums and Markets

Our morning started with a walk through the sunny (although still cold) streets of Wellington. The city is laid out oddly, with steps going under and over streets and buildings. Without Google we never would have made the easy walk to the Cable Car company so easily. We actually got there a bit early and tried to find a coffee shop open on Easter Sunday. While walking around we saw Jack Sparrow rolling a suitcase across the street. Dead ringer for Jack Sparrow. And to make it even better, he was walking in front of a store called David Jones. Ha!

The Cable car is an old trolley that has been climbing the hillside of Wellington for over 100 years. It makes the steep climb up a hillside littered with Victorian houses and buildings, arriving at a breathtaking viewpoint at the top. There are gardens and event spaces here, which we lovely on this sunny morning.

After descending on the cable car and giving in to a Starbucks (blank looks when you ask for a 16 ounce in a metric country), we walked to the Avis car rental to pick up our ride. Choosing a city center location was brilliant. No lines, easy to find and they were pulling the car around within 10 minutes of setting foot inside. 

That is when Steve saw that one of the tires looked low. And yes, it did look low. The sales rep went to fetch her technician, who amounted to be a boy who shrugged his shoulders and said he could put air in the tire. Steve wasn't having any of that; knowing we were driving 1500+ miles on this trip, he wasn't about to add the worry of a low tire on top of driving on the other side of the road.

Thankfully the sales rep decided to upgrade up to the larger vehicle (no charge) to be safe. We pulled away in our Holden Captiva. It had leather seats and back up camera so we were all pleasantly surprised. 

After grabbing our luggage, we hit the road for the 5 hour drive to Napier. Cruising over Highway 2 (how much does that remind us of home) we climbed and descended a pass of switchbacks that had me scrambling for lemon drops. Being on the left side as a passenger on this journey meant I had the view of exactly steep the cliff was. Steve did a great job navigating the road and learning to use the "stopping bays" when needed.

The drive to Napier was stunning. After the pass, most of what we saw was flat, lush farmland broken up by small towns. Then we got into more hills that contained more sheep than I have ever whitnessed in my life. Seriously, there are a lot of sheep in this country.

Eventually we made it into Napier, an Art Deco town that rebuilt after the 1930 earthquake and decided to keep with the theme. The city is like a Great Gatsby version of Leavenworth, on the ocean. Unfortunately, all the stores were closed because of Easter. After enjoying a meal at the Epporium, the restaurant in our hotel, we walked to the beach and made an early night of it.