Wellington City to Coast Highlights Tour (with Lunch)
Description
A 5 hour guided highlights tour of coastal Wellington. Tour highlights include spectacular views at the Mount Victoria Lookout, a scenic coastal drive from Oriental Parade around the Miramar Peninsula as well as a visit to the Weta Workshop Weta Cave with exclusive documentary viewing. Enjoy the views of the rugged south Wellington Coast as far as Te Kopahou Reserve and the Brooklyn Wind Turbine before optional central city stops including the Cable Car, Botanical Gardens and Lady Norwood Rose garden and Old St Paul's Cathedral. Lunch (a main and a drink) at a seaside cafe is included.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Enjoy panoramic views of the city and harbour from the Mount Victoria Lookout.
Visit to the Weta Cave retail and museum space. Optional exclusive behinds the scenes documentary viewing available if time and availability allows
Lunch (mains and a drink) served at this lovely seaside cafe
Learn about the local history, geography, flora and fauna and enjoy amazing views across the Cook Strait to the South Island.
Take in the epic views from the amazing vantage point above the city of Wellington. Learn about the history of the first wind turbine in New Zealand.
Optional trip up the iconic Wellington Cable Car from Lambton Quay to Kelburn. Look across the valley from the Cable Car viewing platform and learn its history in the Cable Car Museum
From the top of the Cable Car guests have the option to take a 20 minute walk down through the Botanical Gardens to the Lady Norwood Rose Garden (weather permitting). The drive guide will pick up guests at the Lady Norwood Rose Garden and continue the tour.
The final stop is Old St. Paul’s Cathedral (optional entry at guests’ own expense, $5 NZD per person), where you can explore this native hardwood timber cathedral, built in 1856, and admire its magnificent stained glass windows.
Highlights
What's included
Pickup Locations & Times
Optional departure times are available on selected cruise ship dates to accommodate varying arrival schedules. Zozo Travel will provide a scheduled pick-up time based on your chosen hotel. Please check your email or Viator messages for your tour details. Be ready in the hotel lobby or outside at the specified time to meet your driver-guide. For cruise terminal passengers, your driver-guide will meet you at the terminal, holding a Zozo Travel sign with your name. Kindly identify yourself to the driver-guide upon arrival.
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Wheelchair accessible
- Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Specialized infant seats are available
- Transportation options are wheelchair accessible
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- Children must be accompanied by an adult
- Collapsible wheelchairs with removable wheels can be accommodated providing the passenger is accompanied by someone who can assist them to board and disembark
- To ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for all guests, participants must be able to enter and exit our vans unassisted, using steps and grab rails. If this basic requirement cannot be met at the start of the tour, our guides reserve the right to decline participation. In such cases, a full refund will be provided.
Reviews(271)
Athena and Zozo tours made getting to many Wellington sites and landmarks so easy! As a solo traveler, their low minimum required bookings also meant I had a good chance to attend and not be left to my own transport. The locations were very interesting, spectacular, relevant, or all three! I loved the lunch spot, the conversation, and the momentum of the tour meant we got to squeeze a lot into approx. 5 hours. Athena was a breath of fresh air who made sure we felt welcome and informed. She was a highlight of an already lovely day! Thanks Zozo!
Thanks for the great feedback Caitlin. Great to hear you enjoyed the tour locations and your wonderful guide for the day!
An ideal way to spend a day in Wellington. I booked this shore excursion following a recommendation on a Cruise Critic Roll call for our New Zealand to Australia cruise in March. The fellow traveller had in fact been directed to this excursion by a friend who lived in Wellington so that was a positive from the start. The moment I booked this through Viator ZoZo Travel were in touch. Great. So reassuring. Customer care at its best. Our guide (think it was Mike) met us dock side promptly and we were all settled in and quickly on our way. Throughout the day he was friendly, knowledgeable and helpful. The tour covered a large area and as the itinerary details a lot of stops. A particular highlight for us was the lunch served at a local seaside cafe. I understand that the tour company reserves it for customers so you get a personal service. The staff were lovely and the food excellent. Most of us seemed to order the fish and chips and the portions were large. As I said at the start it is a full on tour with a lot to take in but it will give you a very good experience of highlights in Wellington. At the time of booking the tour was called cave, coasts. One of my fellow passengers commented that there were no caves. However I understand that the caves aspect could have been WETA stop. I personally felt that one of the coastal stops lasted longer than necessary which then had the knock on effect of meaning that we did not have the opportunity to visit the rose garden. Some of our group were keen to visit the church which is mentioned in the itinerary but when we arrived it was closed. Perhaps this could have been ascertained beforehand. My husband would also have liked to have had the chance for a photo stop at the Beehive (but that may not have been possible due to parking restrictions). On my return home I contacted ZoZo Travel with my feedback. I was delighted to receive a detailed reply which highlighted the care the proprietor takes in providing a great service to his customers. The tour name has now been changed to Wellington highlights removing reference to caves All in all this was a really good shore excursion offering value for money, customer care, an all round concise city and outskirts tour with a lovely lunch thrown in to boot.
Thank you so much for your thoughtful and detailed review, and for choosing to spend your day in Wellington with us while visiting by cruise ship. It was lovely to read your comments about our communication before the tour, and I’ll be sure to pass your kind words on to Mike as well. He works hard to make the day informative, relaxed and enjoyable, so I know he’ll appreciate the feedback. Thank you also for taking the time to share your constructive comments after your tour. We genuinely value feedback like this as it helps us keep improving. You raised a great point about the previous tour name and the expectation it created around “caves.” You weren’t the only guest to interpret this as a natural cave experience rather than a reference to the Wētā Cave experience, so as you mentioned we’ve since resolved this internally by renaming the tour to better reflect the day and avoid future confusion. Regarding Old St Paul’s, unfortunately last-minute closures do happen from time to time and are not uncommon due to services, events, filming and operational requirements. That unpredictability is exactly why entry is not included as part of the tour — we treat it as an opportunistic stop whenever access allows rather than a guaranteed inclusion. Your comments around timing at certain stops and opportunities for additional photo stops are also appreciated and are something we continue to review as we refine the day’s flow. Thank you again for your balanced and generous review. We’re especially grateful that despite a few things not going entirely to plan, you still found the day offered good value, great customer care and a memorable introduction to Wellington. Safe travels and we’d love to welcome you back to New Zealand again in the future.
Peter was awesome guide. TripAdvisor needs to advertise in NZ dollars. Would highly recommend to anyone.
Thank you for your review and recommendation! We're delighted to hear you enjoyed the Wellington City to Coast Highlights Tour and that Pieter helped make your day a memorable one. We'll be sure to pass on your kind words to him. Regarding the currency display, TripAdvisor operates in multiple countries and often shows prices in different currencies depending on a user's location and account settings. We appreciate you highlighting this, as we understand it can sometimes be confusing. Thank you again for joining us, and we hope to welcome you back to Wellington in the future.
It’s a fantastic tour! We lucked out and had Phil all to ourselves. Very good view of Wellington and very informative of the area.
Thanks Tami! Lovely to host you both for the day. Thanks for the wonderful feedback.
Got to see some great sites, lunch was good, and Michael did an awesome job making sure everyone had a good time.
Thanks Annie. Great to hear!
Athena was a wonderful tour guide—so personable and knowledgeable. She fitted our trip to our needs. When she realized how interested we were in LOTR, she fitted our tour with our interests.
Awesome feedback. Much appreciated!
We enjoyed our tour around Wellington visiting interesting places and get to top of mountain with a large wind turbine plus great 360 view of Wellington. The driver was very friendly and informative. Must Do
Great to hear. Thanks for the wonderful feedback on your experience with us.
Wow! The best day of our holiday! Our guide Gary was incredible, a lot of info, we learnt so much. The tour covered a wide view of Wellington, covered a lot of distance and sights. Lots of laughs and yes lunch was delicious! Highly recommend this tour! A fabulous day out!
Great to hear! Thanks for the wonderful feedback.
Had a lovely day and saw alot of Wellington from the coast line to the city. Lunch which was included was yummy as well.
Thanks for the review and delighted to hear you enjoyed the day out in Wellington
It was a very good experience with a tour guide Steve
Thanks for the feedback. Glad you enjoyed the day!
