RTW Trip Day #90: Getting our Bearings at Mount Victoria and the Wellington Zoo

andrewsco3
Dec 30, 2025
2 min read

Updated: Jan 2

27 December 2025

Steps: 9,767

Mount Victoria

For our first full day in Wellington, we started by driving up to the top of Mount Victoria. You can walk up, but with an afternoon planned at Wellington Zoo, we wanted to save the kids’ legs.

The views from the top are fantastic, with panoramas in every direction. Looking down over the harbour is especially iconic, and you can clearly spot the huge Te Papa museum. We’ll be visiting later in the week for a tour led by a Māori local, which Michael kindly arranged through his work there.

Michael pointed out his old apartment near the cricket ground, along with Wellington Airport and the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens. It was a great way for us to get our bearings in the city. The only downside was the wind - something Wellington is well known for.

The Wellington Zoo

After spending some time admiring the views, we headed to Wellington Zoo. It was great to see a mix of animals, and it’s an ethical zoo with a strong focus on protecting New Zealand’s native wildlife.

The zoo also has plenty of non-native animals, including giraffes, gorillas, several types of monkeys, and even the “king of the jungle” - the lion.

Evelyn especially loved the children’s playground by the gorilla enclosure, but her favourite part by far was the Vietual Relairy experience. She’s never had a go before and after trying the ‘great migration’ she now wants to save us $1,000 to buy one! We’ll see how long that lasts….

We also grabbed some food from the Banana Bar, but it wasn’t very good, so I’d definitely recommend bringing your own sandwiches if you visit.

Miramar Coast and Oriental Bay

After the zoo, we went for a drive around the Miramar coast, where there are lots of small rocky beaches to explore and some seriously adorable (and probably very expensive) houses sitting right on the water’s edge.

We then headed to Oriental Bay, which is the central beach in Wellington. The girls were treated to real fruit ice creams from a street-vendor van which were so amazing I ended up going back and buying one for myself! Despite it being a little windy, there were still people swimming in the bay!