Tuesday 19th February
We are in our last port in New Zealand. We have come to its capital, Wellington. It is a lovely sunny morning and after taking the shuttle into the city we walked to see their parliament building. We were surprised to find that you could take a free guided tour inside parliament and we were just a perfect time for the first tour of the day. We had an excellent guide and started the tour in the Beehive building - the modern round one in the picture. This building contains the cabinet rooms and cabinet offices. We weren't allowed to see these. We went down to the basement to see how the old parliament building has been earthquake proofed. Then we went to the Maori Affairs committee room which is called Maui-Tikitiki-a-Taranga. This room has beautiful Maori carvings representing all the Maori tribes. We looked at the library and went into the main debating chamber where parliament sits. We also saw the upper chamber room where the Queen opens parliament but they don't have a sitting upper house anymore. It was a really interesting tour.