This was our second visit to New Zealand’s capital, Wellington.  We were in a lazy mood.  The weather was on and off, rain in the morning, then sun then… 

The first time we visited Old St. Paul’s, a carpenter Gothic church that used to be the Anglican cathedral and now is a wedding chapel, the chapel for the US Marine Corps and used for concerts.  We also took the cable car up the mountain, walked the Botanical Garden and watched kids skateboard in front of Parliament. Here is the blog post from that day.

through the botanical garden and spent a lot of time watching skateboarders outside Parliament.  Here is that blog post. 

While I would have liked to have gone back to St. Paul’s we were low on energy so we settled for taking the shuttle bus from the port to downtown and then walked from the central business district, past “The Beehive” the offices of the ministries, the old Customs House and along the waterfront.  I was thinking of going to some museums but I have trouble standing for extended periods of time and museums involve a lot of standing and squinting to read interpretative placards that may or may not have large enough print so we decided to take a pass.  Walking is better for me anyway.

So, when the afternoon rain came, I ducked into a barbershop for a haircut and beard trim.  This barber has only been open in Wellington for three weeks, so he was not booked up, like the first shop where I stopped.  He was happy for the business.  He lives about an hour outside of Wellington and has the choice of driving on an expressway with lots of traffic or along a winding coastal road.   In New Zealand it is easy to strike up a conversation and when people find we are from Alaska they want to talk a bit.  “Is it REALLY like the reality TV shows?” 

“Uh, no.” and that gets it going.

It was still raining when I came out shorn so we popped into a waterfront pub for ginger beers and then headed back to the shuttle and the ship.