Chapter 2: In Which Moose and Renee Survey the City (and learn some History)

It was a sunny and only mildly windy day in Wellington, Moose thought it would be a perfect day to take a trip on the historic Cable Car and survey the city from up high: he was totally right. They also visited the museum and learned some history and took a very brief walk in the botanical gardens; quickly deciding they needed their own day for full exploration.

Renee took Moose to Cable Car Lane (off of Lambton Quay [pronounced "key"] where she has done LOTS of wandering) and they purchased a round trip ticket before embarking. The car was very full on the way up, including a guy with a bicycle. Moose didn't like the many tunnels they had to pass through so he hid in Renee's bag most of the way up refusing to pose for any pictures.  Renee noted the interesting way the two cars moved on their cables and seemed to counterbalance each other. When they reached the top Moose got to sit on one of the "original" cable cars - it's been refurbished by the cable car society to look like it did when the cable car was shut down in the 70s.
Moose tried to get the driver to let him help with the gripping but he was unresponsive. Renee wasn't surprised by this since he was, in fact, made of plaster... All around the cable car there was fascinating information about the history of the cable car, it started in the late 1800s because hills are steep here and it was instantly super popular as both a method of transport and as entertainment. They even built a fancy house at the top of the hill where all the fancy people (or non fancy people dressed up fancy) would sit on lovely afternoons and have a nice cup of tea!



That building unfortunately burned down at some point (after being re-purposed many times) so you can't see it anymore (which is a shame, look how cool it was!!!) BUT they did build a new building up at the top and there is a cafe inside where you can, indeed, have a cup of tea while looking out at the city. Moose was not keen to have tea so they just took pictures of the amazing view!

Moose would also like to point out that Renee did a good job taking panoramic pictures but she does not know how to make them appear as such on her computer so you will just have to wait to see them until she figures that out.

RAWR I am a GIANT MOOSE come to DESTROY Wellington!!

Downstairs from the 1970s cable car and history there was a replica original (from when it opened) cable car that had been refirbushed using pretty incredible techniques. They detailed how they went about finding the correct color and decorative bits on the car - it looks really nice and shiny but Moose was unable to take a picture actually on it so that it could remain nice and shiny.

Renee really liked seeing the gripping mechanism used to slow/stop the cars since they had almost no electricity, just counterbalance which she got to learn more about in the next room where they had a replica of the original winding mechanism!

Can I help you Mr. Engineer?

THE WHEEL IS MASSIVE!!

The only thing that Renee was missing was someone to explain what was going on beyond the signs, Moose tried but his understanding was not much more than Renee's; if only her daddy had been there, maybe next time :P

Next came the botanical gardens which are HUGE and right around the cable car. Moose wanted to go for a little walk so Renee took him on a short loop which had some interesting sights! Next time they plan to walk the trail that goes from Lambton Quay up to the top of the Cable Car, or maybe they'll walk cable car down because hills are hard...

Not quite tall enough to tell the time from his shadow

You can see some cool star things up here and it's one of the first places they had weather and star monitoring

Moose thought he could make it down to the quay...but Renee reminded him that he is better than cannon fodder

 Having had their fun the pair returned down the cable car, with Moose watching this time since Renee said it was so cool and their were less people.

EEK! The other car is coming right at us! Good thing the track splits at JUST the right moment

Yay Cable Car Adventure!
XP: Age of the Cable Car plus the cost of a round trip ticket: 125