Cable Cars and Cuba in Wellington

Monday, 21 December

First, the cable car...
Ned, the quintessential "agente de viaje" sleuthed out the Wellington Cable Car. For $7.50 (New Zealand - so $5.25 USD) each we purchased round trip tickets. It climbs 120 meters in 5 minutes, so is much longer and steeper than LA's Angels' Flight. It journeys from Lambton Quay downtown up through terraced houses of Kilburn and through colorfully lit tunnels to a lookout perched high above the city. Were we to have had time, we then would have visited such nearby attractions as the Wellington Botanic Gardens and Zealandia.

Construction for the Wellington Cable Car began in 1899, and was operating by 22 February 1902. That first weekend it carried over 4,000 passengers! By 1904, more cars were added to increase seating capacity and a Tea House had been built at the summit. In 1933, electricity replaced steam as the power source for the cable car. In 1978, the original system made its last run and was replaced by a new Swiss designed system upon which we rode. The cable car runs every 10 minutes. See website for operating hours. http://www.wellingtoncablecar.co.nz/

 

 Views from the top:

Now for Cuba...
Ned had read about a darling out-of-the-way restaurant down a little alleyway in Wellington. Fortunately, the taxi driver knew of it, as we could never have found it ourselves. We had a lovely light meal of tapas, most of which don't photograph all that well - piquant chorizo albondigas with a pickled white cabbage slaw,  roasted thyme mushrooms in a sherry wine vinegar, and a rocket (arugula) salad with Padano cheese and a muscatel vinegar dressing. Service was lovely. Ned said his margarita was quite good too.

Tomorrow we depart early to catch the all-day train to Auckland.