Being a tourist in a city can be difficult when traveling on a budget. Eating out and entry fees are likely to leave a hole in your wallet. But you don’t have to spend a huge amount of money, here are the free things we did in Wellington.
Walk from the top of the cable car to the parliament
To be honest we paid to go up the hill with the cable car. However, the ticket only cost 4 NZD per person so we found it fairly reasonable. From the top you have a great view over the city. To get down, there is an official walking path which starts by guiding you through the Botanical Gardens. Further on you will pass some rugby fields where you can watch local teams compete and then through some old cemeteries. The path ends at the Parliament, another main attraction of the city.
Walk along the waterfront and join the kids jumping into the water
Another highlight is to walk along the waterfront and enjoy the view of kayakers and boats on the bay. There are several opportunities to join local kids jumping into the water, including an official jumping wharf. So if you go around on a hot day make sure you bring your swimmers.
Te Papa Museum
This was one of the main highlights in Wellington. The museum consists of three floors with exhibitions plus a lookout on the top floor, so make sure you leave some hours for the whole experience. The first floor holds the exhibition about the history of New Zealand from the beginning of time to now. There are some very interesting facts about the volcanoes, tsunamis and earthquakes throughout the history. You can also see displays of local animals including the only giant squid in the world.
At the time of our visit the museum had a special exhibition about the army who fought in the second world war in Turkey. This history was little known to us and the models of the soldiers were really life like so we especially enjoyed this part of our visit.
Unfortunately, we had to skip the second floor and went straight to the Maori exhibition, a definite must when you visit the country and want to learn about its inhabitants.
Other free attractions we did not visit are the City Gallery, the Cable Car Museum or the Mount Victoria lookout. In case you have the time, don’t leave these out and let us know your comments!