Wellington isn’t called the coolest little capital in the world for nothing.
It’s a great little city with some amazing things to do and see, right on the doorstep of Meetings on the Terrace.
So, if you have people coming into town to use our meeting rooms for a conference, function, meeting or another event, what should you suggest they do during a break, or at the end of the day, or on an extra day they have booked to do the tourist thing?
Here’s a list of our top experiences, starting with those closest to Meetings on The Terrace, and easiest to get to.
Lambton Quay
While The Terrace, where we are conveniently located, is also where you’ll find many of NZ’s Government departments and agencies, the next street down the hill is a different story.
Lambton quay is the shopping heart of Wellington, and from our conference centre, a walk across The Terrace and down lifts in the James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor gets you there in a couple of minutes.
Once you are there, the 850m between The Beehive to the North, and the Old Bank Arcade to the South contains enough different sorts of shopping, fine dining, drinking, parks and sculptures to satisfy most people.
For a couple of less well-known gems, the tour of Parliament (at the North end of Lambton Quay) and the Reserve Bank Museum (at the bottom of The Terrace, just across the road from The Beehive) are a lot more interesting than they sound.
The Cable Car
It isn’t called the Cable Car Meeting Room for nothing. The Wellington cable car goes right past our building on its way from Lambton Quay up to the top of the Wellington Botanic Garden in the suburb of Kelburn.
Technically it’s a funicular railway-cable car hybrid, that climbs 120m over a length of 612m and you get some great views of Wellington City along the way, and at the top.
If you don’t have much time, then a trip up and down the cable car, with a quick visit to the Cable Car Museum, and/or the lookout at the top is a good option. The trip itself takes about five minutes each way, so a 30-45 minute outing from Meetings on The Terrace is possible. Find out more at https://www.wellingtoncablecar.co.nz
If you have got a bit more time, then the next few options might be worth considering.
The Wellington Botanic Garden
If you have got a bit more time up your sleeve, then once you have gone up the cable car, there is plenty to see and do on a walk back down through the Botanic Garden. The highlights are the Space Place at Carter Observatory, the Treehouse Visitor Centre and Shop, The Lady Norwood Rose Garden and the Begonia House, but there is far too much to list here. To find out about it all, check out their website here: https://wellingtongardens.nz/our-gardens/wellington-botanic-garden-ki-paekaka/#things-to-see-and-do|e335
At the bottom of the Botanic Garden is the Bolton Street Cemetery, which is worth a look, and leads to a walking path that takes you down to The Beehive and the bottom of The Terrace.
The Wellington Waterfront
Only a few minutes walk from The Terrace and Lambton Quay is the waterfront. At the North end is the Wellington Port, ferry terminals and wharves, but right next to them are some great restaurants and bars. If you keep heading South, you’ve got Frank Kitts Park, Te Papa, Waitangi Park, Oriental Parade and Freyberg Beach. On a good day, you can’t beat it!
Te Papa Tongarewa
It’s the Museum of New Zealand and is a great place to spend half an hour looking at a few choice displays, an hour or two at one of the major international exhibitions they run, or while away a day wandering through many floors of collections. See what’s on at: https://www.tepapa.govt.nz
Cafes and micro-breweries
Wellington embraced café culture very early by international standards. It’s gone from strength to strength since then, and now has fantastic cafés sprinkled throughout the city and suburbs.
The micro-breweries are a more recent thing in Wellington, but just as good a reason to venture out into the city. You can visit many of the breweries to sample their drops directly, or a trip to most good bars in town will see you facing a wide array of local brews to sample.
Mount Victoria Lookout
It’s a bit of a tradition to take first time visitors to Wellington up to the lookout at the top of Mt. Victoria for the stunning views and a quick and easy orientation. You’ll need transport to get there from our meeting rooms, but it’s well worth doing as a detour on the way to or from the airport, or on your way to other Wellington experiences. Many of the small tour operators in Wellington include a visit to Mt. Vic on their round town trips.
Weta Cave
It’s been a couple of decades since the first Lord of the Rings movie, but it’s still something that people think of when you mention Wellington. Weta Workshops in Miramar have been involved with a lot more films both before and after the Tolkien epics, and there are a few different tours of various durations that you can do at The Weta Cave.
It’s a 20-30 min drive from Meetings on The Terrace to the Weta Cave depending on the time of day and traffic.
If Lord of the Rings really is your thing, then there are numerous companies in Wellington that offer tours of key filming locations around town and take you to the Weta Cave as part of the package.
The Wind Turbine
It’s a bit less of a novelty now than it was in the early days (there is a huge windfarm just over the hill now), but up close on a windy day, the mark 2 (the first one wore out!) wind turbine up on Hawkins Hill Road in Brooklyn is still an amazing thing to stand underneath.
You also get a stunning view from up there, which includes all of Wellington, Petone, the Hutt Valley, Wellington harbour, Cook Strait and the South Island. On a clear day you can even see snow-capped Tapuae-o-Uenuku, between Blenheim and Kaikoura, the highest mountain in New Zealand outside the main range of the South Island Alps.