A day in Wellington

I made a quick trip to Wellington for the day.

I took a JetStar flight there.  I showed up at the airport over an hour early, expecting the American level of paranoia during the security checks.  But I had the kind of trip that no American has experienced since, oh, September 10, 2001.  Here are the things I did which blew. my. mind.  I carried a hot coffee AND a bottle of water through the X-ray.  I didn't take off my shoes or my jacket.  I never showed my ID to anyone... I felt like I might as well be getting on a train.

Wellington is the capitol city, and the artistic, cultural center of New Zealand.  Unfortunately, it is not blessed with spectacular architecture.  I saw the Parliament building, not-so-affectionately nicknamed The Beehive...

 

And also the rugby stadium, aptly called the Cake Tin.  There was a huge rugby tournament happening and the city was packed.

 

I wish I would have gotten a good picture of one of these, but I missed it so I'll just have to do a good job of explaining.   The main road from the airport into the city travels along the shoreline around the semi-circular harbor.   The road is roughly at sea level, and then just a little inland from the road, lush and green cliffs rise up sharply.  Wellingtonians have built houses all along these cliffs.  They seem to hang precariously hundreds of feet above the road.  But here's the thing:  The garage for each of these houses is on the same level as the road.  The only access to the house is to climb up 300 or so stairs.   Imagine parking your car just off the street, and then lugging your groceries a quarter mile straight up a cliff!   Buying a house like that must be a very serious decision, just from the perspective of moving the furniture.

You know those chair-elevators that disabled people sometimes have in their 2-story homes?  Many of the houses with these ridiculous cliff-side locations have them.  But they're outdoors and link their garage with the house, like a personal funicular.