Request for Info/Places to visit in Wellington - Jan 2024

[Victor Meldrew]

Some help needed!

I have a friend from the UK visiting NZ in Jan 2024 who is spending 4 days in Wellington before heading down to visit friends in the Sth Island.

She's looking for places to visit during her Wellington stay and in her own words: "I'm more into people watching, scenery and history and art museums and looking for local tips on the best ones to visit and good coffee shops and cafés that locals use".

Any suggestions or ideas warmly welcomed.

[MN5]

Usual tourist spots like Te Papa, Weta Workshop, Cable Car etc are good. A trip to Eastbourne ( there is a statue of @Bones there ), Oriental Bay plus an absolute litany of cafes/bars etc.

Tell her to watch out for homeless in town ( seriously, the amount of ferals sitting outside shops is getting ridiculous )

[Chris B.]

@Victor-Meldrew Long time since I lived in Wellington, but I used to take visitors up to the Mt. Victoria lookout - google says Bus 20 will get you there.

From Eastbourne - the walk to Pencarrow lighthouse is a nice outing on a fine day. As is the walk around Redrocks.

Zealandia wildlife sanctuary is on my list for next time in Wellington.

[sparky]

Wellington Botanic Gardens

[Canes4life]

@Victor-Meldrew the following website has everything you need to know about Welly. https://www.wellingtonnz.com/

[voodoo]

May I suggest a day trip to Palmerston North?

[Victor Meldrew]

@voodoo said in Request for Info/Places to visit in Wellington - Jan 2024:

May I suggest a day trip to Palmerston North?

A visit to John Clarke's birthplace disguised as a cultural extravaganza?

[voodoo]

@Victor-Meldrew Indeed. A must-see

[voodoo]

If that Anzac exhibition is still on at Te Papa, that’s a must. It’s as good as anything I’ve ever seen I reckon. The quality of the sculptures, the stories told. Spine-tingling stuff

[canefan]

@MN5 said in Request for Info/Places to visit in Wellington - Jan 2024:

Usual tourist spots like Te Papa, Weta Workshop, Cable Car etc are good. A trip to Eastbourne ( there is a statue of @Bones there ), Oriental Bay plus an absolute litany of cafes/bars etc.

Tell her to watch out for homeless in town ( seriously, the amount of ferals sitting outside shops is getting ridiculous )

The Thunderbird exhibition at Weta was excellent

[MN5]

@voodoo said in Request for Info/Places to visit in Wellington - Jan 2024:

May I suggest a day trip to Palmerston North?

Upvote for making me laugh at the utter ridiculousness of this suggestion

[nzzp]

Surprisingly, Zealandia was very very good and quite unique. Would recommend. I wasn't keen to go and thoroughly enjoyed the trip - it's a neat wee pocket of regenerating native bush with a lot of wildlife

[Nepia]

I'd recommend the City and Sea museum - great for the history of the area.

[Smudge]

There's a cute little coffee shop called Mojo. Pretty sure it's tucked away down an alley in town somewhere so might be hard to find.

Wait, sorry, no, I stand corrected. There's 15 of them in Wellington.

[canefan]

Panhead and garage project have bars where you can drink their beer if you are that way inclined

[voodoo]

Apparently the Featherstone does a decent feed of cheerios and you can drink and punt while you eat them.

I say apparently because I don’t eat those disgusting things, but I know some cretins who do

[mikey07]

@Smudge I was going to post that there everywhere in town.

[Smudge]

@voodoo said in Request for Info/Places to visit in Wellington - Jan 2024:

Apparently the Featherstone does a decent feed of cheerios and you can drink and punt while you eat them.

I say apparently because I don’t eat those disgusting things, but I know some cretins who do

I feel seen.

[Bones]

@MN5 said in Request for Info/Places to visit in Wellington - Jan 2024:

there is a statue of @Bones there

It's a mural ya mong.

[Bones]

@Chris-B said in Request for Info/Places to visit in Wellington - Jan 2024:

From Eastbourne - the walk to Pencarrow lighthouse is a nice outing on a fine day. As is the walk around Redrocks.

Good call, although if time is an issue, I'd suggest a walk to butterfly creek might be better time spent - wicked views and if new to NZ she get a smile out of being followed around by piwakawaka. If not unfit, you could do both on the same day, then top it off with a bomb off day's bay wharf followed by some hot chips and a latte at the pavilion.