Kentishgirl

We are going to Wellington for a long weekend in a couple of weeks. We arriving Friday lunchtime and leaving early Monday afternoon. We are going to the football Saturday early evening. Advice please on the must dos!

2 adults, 13 and 10 Yr old kids.

We are staying at the James Cook Hotel. Would we be better getting a car, or will parking in the city be difficult. I see there is a bus from the airport to the city.

Thank you

MrsFychan

wouldn't really bother with a car if you are just staying in the CBD. Te Papa is a must, cable car up to the Gardens if its not raining.
We enjoyed the Museum of Wellington City and Sea, but it is a lot of reading and not very interactive. Maybe a ferry ride out East by West Ferries

ellenarosemary

If you want to go a bit further afield, look at the trains, you could go out to Petone, or the Kapiti coast.

simonmarkellis

There's the Zoo.....

TommyLuck

For something a bit different you could pop over to Somes Island.

MrsFychan

was going to suggest Matiu Somes Island, but to be honest not a lot there to keep the kids entertained luckily we did Matiu Somes Island and Days Bay in one trip.

Snap Shot

Portlander is the restaurant of the Rydges Hotel on Featherston Street. I liked it, I don't know how child friendly either it or the menu is. Sorry if that came across as patronising.

Butlers Chocolate Cafe is a regular coffee & limited cabinet food cafe but you can choose a posh chocolate from the selection which is included in the price of your coffee.

A walk along the waterfront is nice, I think so anyway. If you get to the square in front of the library and council offices you can walk over the city to sea bridge and on to the waterfront. It's a regular boardwalk but you can walk past an old steel ship and carry on until you get to the bronze statue of a bloke posed to look like he's about to take a dip into Wellinton Harbour.

Back in the city, walk along Lambton Quay and as you walk in front of the Old Bank Arcade it's obvious to see where the old quayside was before the earthquake of 1840.

There's some good pictures of boats moored along Lambton Quay in the McDonalds next to the Opera House. Maybe there's more of that along with loads of other things in Te Papa Museum of New Zealand. I've been to Te Papa, it was excellent but I don't remember that there was that much about the earthquakes Wellington has suffered.

If you take the cable car up to Kelburn you can walk back down into Wellington via the Botanical Gardens. BTW it is still public transport and will stop at about four stops en route to the top where the cable car museum is. Walk back to the city through one of the oldest cemetaries in Wellington in the gathering dusk........

There's lots of sushi bars in Wellington, mostly in Featherston Street.

Courtenay Place, IMO is overated, in daylight at least. Maybe I just don't know where the 'cool bars' are !

You could go and take a walk to the government buildings just to see where the journalists file their reports from.

I wouldn't bother with the car. Buses are plentiful. I took a bus out to Seatoun just for a look round. Nice little beachside suburb albeit it rained when I was there last April. I had lovely hot soup and hot tea in a little cafeteria and took the bus back to town.

Please be careful on Manners Street, Central Wellinton. A lot of the buses are powered by electricity on overhead cables, this makes them nearly silent as they travel. A couple of people have got run over by buses as they think that Manners Street is one way or pedestrianised.......it isn't.

MOSO

Ferg's climbing wall or kayaks on the sea front or the pedal boats/ skate hire?Further along the front there are crocodile bikes and a skate park. Café Eiss by the pedal boats/edge of Frank Kitts park does fab icecream. There are also bungee trampolines in Frank Kitts park. Depends on the weather obviously!

Browner_

The football will take up most of Saturday, ko is at 2:30pm I think.
West Ham are training at the Westpac Stadium at 11am on Friday if you are there in time for that.
Otherwise , it could well be a bit cold and rainy judging by current weather, so you may be better off with the bars and restaurants and museums and theatres. From James Cook hotel you can walk to most parts of city without a trouble or a very short bus ride at worst. You will have time Sunday to do plenty - a walk up Mt Kau Kau if you are active, hang around TePapa and the market in the morning if its a nice day, swim at Freiberg pool if that's your thing

escapedtonz

As others have said. I wouldn't bother getting a car as parking can be a pain, but that said it isn't that expensive to park in the multi-storey places at the weekend and there's a couple close to the James Cook. I work just across the road on The Terrace.

Doesn't matter what the weather is like. I'd walk down to Lambton Quay and take the cable car to the top at Kelburn. There's a cafe at the top and a great museum. There's also a good view for photo's (weather dependant) and an observatory. Take the footpath all the way down to the botanical gardens, then through to the Lady Norwood Rose Garden where there's another cafe, shop and greenhouse to walk around then walk through the cemetery, over SH1 and back down to The Terrace. There's a sort of tiny church / museum thing at the bottom that explains moving grave stones etc for SH1 coming through. Fairly interesting. It makes for a good walk out with the kids as it's all downhill and good walking throught the gardens. There's a decent playground on the way down but may be too wet ?
Te Papa museum is a must for sure and a walk down the waterfront. Given time you can hire bikes, kyaks, blades plus there's loads of places to eat and drink.
The East by West ferry is good for getting over to the Eastbourne side of the harbour. Wouldn't bother with Somes Island unless you're all into birds and walking. Wouldn't bother with Seatoun. It's a nice place but there isn't much there. The ferry also goes to Days Bay where there's a great restaurant Kobar and a couple of good cafe's if that's not open. It may be a good idea to book Kobar if you wish to go as it does get busy at the weekend.
You have the CBD to walk around if you want to view the shops with plenty places to eat and drink. A stroll all the way down Cuba Street is good just because its so eclectic with alternative shops.
Oriental parade to the East of the city (carry on past Te Papa out of the city) is nice and there's access up to the top of Mount Victoria which will give you a great view of the city (weather dependant again).

You can easily walk to the stadium from the hotel either along the road or through the train station. Have a drink in the oldest pub to the side of the train station - The Thistle Inn on Mulgrave Street, Thorndon. There'll be loads of people in there because of the game but it's a great place to go before going in Westpac.

Have a good weekend.

Kentishgirl

Thank you all for helpful suggestions. Looking forward to it, although the weather is not looking that good.

Boopy

The forecast is to be dry on Saturday... I hope, as I'll also be at the match

Hazelnut

We loved the cable car and the museum was good fun with us really liking that you could sit on old tram cars. There's a planetarium about a ten minute walk from the cable car museum which is great for young people, we spent ages pushing buttons, making things light up, touching space rocks and pretending we were on the space station. My name's H, aged 47 and three quarters They do an afternoon showing in the stardome as well, check the website for the film they have.

The waterfront walk is good for spotting all the sculptures and artwork, some of which move so you could set the kids to spitting and interacting with them if the weather is dry. We liked Te Papa but I can see it being a little dry for young folk, we didn't find much in the way of interactive exhibits. Loads to see. And fascinating for us but a bit dry for 10-13yr olds perhaps.

I loved the Weta workshop but husband and I are both special effects, film geeks.

Kentishgirl

Thank you everyone, we had a great weekend.

MrsFychan

Great, now pics and update as to what you got up too