This was our first experience traveling on a car ferry and it was super smooth. We checked in and…read morewaited in our designated lane. When it was time to load, we followed the cars onto the ferry. Once parked, we left our car and headed to the premium lounge. The premium lounge had a hot breakfast, continental breakfast, desserts, and drinks throughout the trip. The chairs, WiFi, and cozy seating areas made travel comfy. We traveled through a major storm and very little rocking was felt. The ride was amazingly smooth. I headed out to the outdoor deck a few times to buck and wind and rain to see the beautiful scenery. Staff was helpful and welcoming. Upon landing, we followed the cars off the boat and headed to our next destination. It was a great way to travel as our luggage was able to stay in the car and we didn't have to deal with it. We did have a rental car, although now you can no longer bring rentals across islands. You need to return and rerent at the destination island.

Love the inter- islander. Such beautiful views of the top…read moreis the South Island and bottom of the North Island. Can be hard to get a seat, but still worth it.

I did a LOT of riding the Metlink, Wellington's bus network. As the capital city and since it is…read morequite spread out, there are over 100 bus lines, the funicular, some ferries and even a few suburban trains. Some of the buses are diesel and some are electric, most of the buses have bike racks on front. It is the most used public transportation system in the country. As well, the city's hilly network makes a public transport system quite the lifesaver. Metlink converted from paper tickets to a tap in / tap out debit card system though it is still possible to purchase fares from the driver with cash. The card system is called "Snapper" and the cards can be loaded online (if you have an online account) or from kiosks around the city. When you "tap in" the cost for your fare is displayed and how much credit you have remaining. Easy to use and relatively inexpensive. I found the bus frequency to be plenty often - I never waited more than ten minutes. And it was pretty awesome to have up-to-date information displayed on the screen at the bus stop. [Review 494 of 2024 - 143 in New Zealand - 21526 overall]

I stayed here for one night while touring New Zealand. The hotel is rather nice. It seemed rather…read morenew and clean, and it's just a few blocks from the waterfront, near the museum, so it also was in a pretty good (but not great) location. The staff was very pleasant at check in and gave some good tips about things to do in the area. The room was very nice and modern. I was impressed with by the granite countertop in the kitchen area and the full size refrigerator. The hotel also had a parking garage, though I did find it difficult to maneuver in. Overall we had a good stay here and I would stay here again.

My best and by far favorite hotel stay whilst in the North Island…read more This place is lovely with its apartment style hotel rooms. It's complete with a living room area, mounted tv, a table set for four. There's a fully stocked kitchen, huge fridge and all the essentials including a kettle, toaster, oven, dishwasher, microwave, knife set, with coffee, tea, and hot chocolate for your consumption. The living room, lounge area is wide open with a 5 seat sofa. The bedroom is comfortable with four fluffy pillows. The bathroom is huge, glass counter top with a sunk in sink; both a tub and shower combo. Just has odd set up with no sliding bathroom door, just a swinging window door. It's an awkward shower placement, that weird swinging door isn't wide enough to keep water from getting out of the bath, so be weary of where you place that bathmat. In the bathroom is also a handy two in one washer dryer. All in all, it was a great stay. The parking situation can be prepaid with the hotel, and it is joined to a parking garage, you'd just have to go through the parking garage elevator to get to the right level then take your hotel elevator up to your room. And our window opened up to a gorgeous view...of the parking garage. That's what I loved waking up to. I only kid, everything else about this place was going for it. Walking distance to Cuba Street, it's very centralized and easy to get to and find.

If you're a Lord of the Rings fan (or just a movie nerd in general), the Wētā Studio Tour is a…read moremust-do in Wellington. Walking through the workshop where so many iconic props, costumes, and creatures came to life was seriously cool--it felt like stepping behind the curtain of Middle-earth. What surprised me most was just how many films Wētā has worked on beyond LOTR--blockbusters, indie films, you name it. Their fingerprints are everywhere in the film world, and you don't even realize it until you're surrounded by all the displays. The best part? You can tell the people who work there love what they do. Everyone we met was excited to talk about their craft, and their passion was infectious. It made the whole experience feel less like a tour and more like a peek into a community of insanely talented (and genuinely happy) creatives. Highly recommend carving out time for this if you're in Wellington--you'll come out with a deeper appreciation for all the magic that goes into movie-making.

I ordered a Labyrinth figure in 2022 for $60 and placed it on shelf. It was the only item on the…read moreshelf, and the shelf was securely mounted to the wall. No pets or children reside in the house. The figure ('Sarah + worm') fell off the shelf overnight and the worm's head fell off. I emailed Weta to let them know, someone named Tessa said she's look into it and get back to me. I even sent pictures. A production manager was supposed to see what they could do for me. When I emailed again for an update, they said 'Sorry, this ticket is closed, we can't do a thing for you.' Then then refused to replace it or refund me. Worst quality products ever

My first time to Wellington, we spend a few days here. It is a lovely hotel. Rooms are clean and…read moretidy . You do however have a shared bathroom. This hotel caters for backpackers too. There is a shared kitchen you can use as well as a washing machine and dryer. Down stairs is a bar and restaurant that serves delicious meals.

Right on the river front and part of a wonderful hotel, this hostel is unique in my experience…read more Essentially, the owners have provided posh hotel rooms, and equally nice but non-suite hostel rooms. They even have teasmaids and TVs! If I had one quibble it's that the lights in the bathroom are on a timer and go out after a few minutes - usually just as you're trying to get the soap out of your eyes. The bar on the ground floor is great and they do backpacker specials like a BBQ once a week which are great value. Failing that, there's a cracking Chinese a few doors up ;)

A cheap, no-frills place to stay - or a couple of frills if you want to pay for them. I at least…read moregot my own room, and that's all I needed for a relaxing, quiet night. The place is very well run and a good value if all you need is a bed.

Conveniently located to everything (grocery store, restaurants, bars and local sites). Friendly…read morestaff, very reasonably priced. Clean rooms but no air conditioning. Good for short stays.

This stay would have been great (4.5 star) good location, access to the city, on-site parking and…read moreclean, tidy rooms. The flaw was that the staff messed up on billing and didn't really know how to communicate with their guests effectively. A little disappointing, particularly as this was my first stop-off point in NZ so didn't set the best example of what NZ can offer. Try harder, Bay Plaza, and I'll up your review next time.

I can only speak about the breakfast buffet, which was really grim. Watery eggs, cold sausage,…read morelifeless, fruit, and a coffee urn that was not tended to very frequently. For.$35 this was largely a terrible deal. I did manage to get the bacon when it was hot as well as the mushrooms so they were edible, but everything else was pretty atrocious, including the lack of service. They are clearly in need of more staff, and especially training them on how to do their jobs

We stayed here for a couple nights on our trip and there were some positives and negatives. The…read morelocation is overlooking the harbor and many rooms have a beautiful view. The room itself was very nice with a lot of space and everything was new and clean. Bathroom was spacious and had a great shower. The beds were very comfortable and it was quiet and easy to enjoy a good nights sleep. We went upstairs to the lounge to grab a drink and I imagine that during the day it's a beautiful view as you are surrounded with windows. At night there is not much that you could see, but the lounge was nice and the drink was mixed well. It is a pretty pricey stay, but you don't get many amenities. Wifi was additional and had to be renewed which was annoying and expensive. The other thing, is the front desk staff wasn't super friendly to us any of the days we were there. Overall it's a visually impressive hotel and though pricey, a pretty comfortable stay.