Following the Cable Car's trail

Wellington's historic Cable Car is one of the city's popular tourist attractions. From the busy Lambton Quay, one can conveniently reach the Botanic Gardens located in the upper regions through the cable car, which runs every ten minutes within its hours of operations.

Well, I'm sure you're expecting that I will proceed to a narration of the thrill of the ride and the wonderful scenery all around. But I'm not. heh. Instead, Friday afternoon saw us walking along the route that winds through the path of the cable car. We were just wondering if a walk from Lambton Quay to the Botanic Garden by way of the path of the Cable Car is just as worth it.
We started at the Parliament Building and were walking along Lambton Quay when we saw this corridor between two buildings that said it would lead us straight to the Terrace, a busy commercial street. So we climbed a flight of stairs that lead us to the Terrace, and walked for around 4 blocks or so. This lead us to Everton which ran perpendicular to the superhighway. We crossed this street, and soon enough, we have left the line of buildings to greener surroundings with traces of where the cable car passes through.




A playground suddenly came in full view and so we stopped for Jo-Lo to have a break. Well... ok, for us too!
I believe we were already three-fourths of the way to the Botanic Garden but we actually started late (I got stuck in traffic on the way from work) so we decided to make the descent after a few minutes at the park.

Our verdict? The uphill climb starting from Lambton Quay afforded us a different view of this part of town. I also became more aware that there are actually these alleyways between buildings that lead to shops and bars, and that you are truly never far from Nature even when you're in the city.

But if you are in tourist mode and would like to do more touristy stuff rather than exploring "unkown" territory, take the scenic route. Ride the cable car, get to the Botanic Garden, and you'll have a lot more space to explore in the enormous park.