September 24, 2025 • 9 mins
To coincide with the influx of visitors for World of WearableArt (WOW), WellingtonNZ has arranged a hop-on, hop-off minibus service exclusively for WOW ticketholders.
It connects them with the best of Wellington's CBD with a 30-minute loop route, accompanied by commentary of some of Wellington's history and stories.
Driver and tour guide Ron Irvine joined Nick Mills to talk about his role.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talk STB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Well we've been talking about it since it started, which
was last Friday was the official opening of Wow. The
show is called Rise. It's the twentieth anniversary of Wellbeing
in Wellington and this year they've got a new initiatiff
and I think personally it's amazing. It looks amazing. It's
this big pink minivan. It's not calling it a minivan
(00:36):
is a little bit hard on it because it looks
flasher than a minivan. And Ron Irvine is the driver
of this what would you call it? Ron Morning, good Morning, Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
It's a people move and Nick flash people, it's very
very very flash. It looks good. Patrons are absolutely loving it.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Right, So explain to our listeners what it actually does,
because I've seen it driving around and I know that
it's there to help people.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
How does it work?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, So we start off at the railway station. We
do a thirty minute loop around Wellington's e B D.
So we start at the railway station, we talk about
how it came about and Wellington and Z and WAWE
in collaboration with each other for the twentieth anniversary of
Wauben and Wellington. We that they've put on this for
(01:24):
the first time and it's been very very popular. Nick,
it's it's it's great, and you know, this is my
first time doing commentary on on here. In the first
two laps we're a little bit rough, but now I'm
in the routine. So we start off at the host.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I mean, your dress beautiful, absolutely, dress.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Beautiful, it's stunning. So so so we actually start off
at the railway station. We follow the waterfront down Jervois Key.
I point out the wou Hub and of course that's
where they're going to see the show, at the tesp arena.
At the hub they've got massive glass cab you know,
cabinets with previous garments from previous shows display. It's down
(02:10):
at the test By arena there at the front there. Yeah,
they've got the whale shop and there. Then we move
along with Frankotts Park there we've got to stop there.
We go along around to to Papa. We talk about
to Papa and pick up and drop off and incidentally
you can just get on and off this this bus,
(02:30):
this shuttle. We talk about Taquina across the road. The
we'll press photo exhibition in there at the moment. We
carry on along and we also talk about the QT Hotel,
how it moved from where Tapapa is now and along
Cable Street and then across the road. We carry on
(02:52):
around and we talk about a bit of history. We
talk about Wellington having its own taj Mahal.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Of course you know you have the toilet.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yes, so the taj Mahal toilets in nineteen up until
nineteen which is well Bar now that's now, that's now
the Welsh Bar. I had my fiftieth birthday in there.
Fantastic night. Then we come into Courtney Place, we go
along there, party of capitals.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Of course, you talk about all the good places.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Absolutely absolutely. Hummingbird is a fantastic restaurant there. We talk
about the Library Bar, we talk about Chow, We talk
about Dragonfly absolutely dragon absolutely yeah. And then we carry
on along to towards Taranaki Street and mention the Saint
James and then do a left into Taranaki Street and
(03:45):
then up goes Knee to Cuba.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
More talk about Cuba all.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
A bit h yeah, and it just keeps going.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Can I tell you this little story wrong? I love
Please do it.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I was in my restaurant. I might mention its name,
you can, but I didn't mention it. I'm not to
because my boss is in they're watching me if he's
going to write it down and charge before it. And
this group of beautiful women eighty five old, yes, ten
or twelve of them, beautiful, all dressed up to the
night looked amazing. And I was wondering there and they
were drinking and they were eating and having fun. And
(04:15):
they went over to the matro d and said, can
you organize a couple of a couple of cabs for us?
Or And I thought to myself, that's where I need
Rom's number. Absolutely imagine going through picking.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Them up and then dropping the ball. It would have
been a hell of an experience for them.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
We're operating between nine thirty and four thirty PM, so
we could.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Do a lunch. Are you're not operating at night?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Operating at night? And unfortunately, maybe that's something for next year.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Yeah, I think that's a great idea. I think it
should be at night because.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
We've got one bus happening at the moment, and as
I say, it's you know the first time that we've
had it operating. Lots of feedback has been we need
two buses going around all the time.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
And what sort of truck is it? Because it's a
very good looking truck.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
It's a nineteen seater bus. It's a people mover what brand?
Speaker 4 (05:05):
You don't know what branded?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
IV?
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, pretty classy machine.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
It's looking good.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
And have you got sound system and that you talk
to the yes, talk to your passion.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Are they all women.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
And mostly mostly In fact, I had one gentleman said yeah,
I'm the token mail as he walked on. But yeah,
a lot of the time I'm actually stopped. I actually
stopped talking because what happens is the people that are
on the bus they start talking to each other and.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
They say absolutely, and the.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
People from all over New Zealand. We've had some Australians
in there as well, and they start talking to each
other and they go, oh that's where i'm my husband
or you know, I went an eight there twenty five
years ago. It's that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
How much, just how much of well business is return business?
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Do you know what I mean? People you listen to people?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Yeah, I think I think it's it's very much a
lot of return business. We have a lot of as
far as I'm the wanderer, we have a lot of
people that actually hop on, hop off. I mean, I
had a wheelchair yesterday and said, she said, look, can
we can we come on? And I said, does it
fold down? She said yeah. I said, come on, let's
(06:14):
let's uh, let's put you on. We've got space in
the back. We'll fold it up. And you didn't.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
You didn't put her in the back of the bus.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
No, no, no, the wheelchair and she was able to
get up the steps and we carried on. And she
was there this morning waiting to get from cable car
lane to to Papa and welcome to her aboard.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Right.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
So, how many people are you on an average trip
you got on the on the bus, We've.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Got quite quite a few at basically it's full quite
a bit of the time. Hence the need for an
extra bus. I think to do the loop souh you know.
And and as it gets known, I think that'll become
more popular.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
What are the visitors saying about Rise to the latest
show of Well.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Absolutely I went last night and it was absolutely fantastic,
and the people it sort of cemented what the people
are saying that. It's actually a fantastic show, really really good,
thoroughly recommend it to anyone.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Is the buzz around when they hop on?
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Is there a bit of a buzz and a chatter?
You you know what I'm talking?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, yeah I do. It's interesting you talk about the buzz.
You know, Wellingtonians we're a little bit down at the
moment and that, but all the guests are saying, wow,
Wellington is a buzz. We need more shows like this,
we need more activity like this.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Now, let me tell you we will be really popular.
I reckon the Mecca store in Lampton Key is going
to be very popular because I was when pasted on
Sunday and it was backed nowhere else had and they're
all like, well people.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
You could tell absolutely absolutely yeah. Lots of places around
like that. Yeah, very very good.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
It's good for good for webage age.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Averagere's probably you know, he's fifty five through to seventy
sort of thing, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Really good woman with money.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
We love them absolutely spend spen spend.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Great Ron, lovely to talk to you. Thank you for case.
Ron Irvine. He's the bus driver. He's the Matre.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
D Matre D. I'm dressed I'm dressed, you might.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Can you come a work for me at nights as well?
Why not? You're not doing anything at nighttime? I know
that's true that you look amazing.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
And the bus, I don't like calling it a bus
because no, it's a bit classier than a bus, doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yeah, I don't know what you call it.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
It's very cool people move.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
You will have to think on that.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
How do you know if someone like me just doesn't
want to jump on and go for a ride around
town without a ticket for well, can I do that?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
So what happens is they have to show their their
WOW ticket.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
But what about it?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Well, you can generally you can generally tell if they're
well attendees. You know, they're all dressed to the nines
and you wouldn't know you will come for a ride? Okay,
I'll let John.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Thank you, Ron Irvine. That's called the Wow Wanderer.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news Talks It'd be Wellington from nine am week days,
or follow the podcast on Heart Radio.
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talk STB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Well we've been talking about it since it started, which
was last Friday was the official opening of Wow. The
show is called Rise. It's the twentieth anniversary of Wellbeing
in Wellington and this year they've got a new initiatiff
and I think personally it's amazing. It looks amazing. It's
this big pink minivan. It's not calling it a minivan
(00:36):
is a little bit hard on it because it looks
flasher than a minivan. And Ron Irvine is the driver
of this what would you call it? Ron Morning, good Morning, Welcome.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
It's a people move and Nick flash people, it's very
very very flash. It looks good. Patrons are absolutely loving it.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Right, So explain to our listeners what it actually does,
because I've seen it driving around and I know that
it's there to help people.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
How does it work?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
Yeah, So we start off at the railway station. We
do a thirty minute loop around Wellington's e B D.
So we start at the railway station, we talk about
how it came about and Wellington and Z and WAWE
in collaboration with each other for the twentieth anniversary of
Wauben and Wellington. We that they've put on this for
(01:24):
the first time and it's been very very popular. Nick,
it's it's it's great, and you know, this is my
first time doing commentary on on here. In the first
two laps we're a little bit rough, but now I'm
in the routine. So we start off at the host.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I mean, your dress beautiful, absolutely, dress.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Beautiful, it's stunning. So so so we actually start off
at the railway station. We follow the waterfront down Jervois Key.
I point out the wou Hub and of course that's
where they're going to see the show, at the tesp arena.
At the hub they've got massive glass cab you know,
cabinets with previous garments from previous shows display. It's down
(02:10):
at the test By arena there at the front there. Yeah,
they've got the whale shop and there. Then we move
along with Frankotts Park there we've got to stop there.
We go along around to to Papa. We talk about
to Papa and pick up and drop off and incidentally
you can just get on and off this this bus,
(02:30):
this shuttle. We talk about Taquina across the road. The
we'll press photo exhibition in there at the moment. We
carry on along and we also talk about the QT Hotel,
how it moved from where Tapapa is now and along
Cable Street and then across the road. We carry on
(02:52):
around and we talk about a bit of history. We
talk about Wellington having its own taj Mahal.
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Of course you know you have the toilet.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yes, so the taj Mahal toilets in nineteen up until
nineteen which is well Bar now that's now, that's now
the Welsh Bar. I had my fiftieth birthday in there.
Fantastic night. Then we come into Courtney Place, we go
along there, party of capitals.
Speaker 4 (03:19):
Of course, you talk about all the good places.
Speaker 3 (03:20):
Absolutely absolutely. Hummingbird is a fantastic restaurant there. We talk
about the Library Bar, we talk about Chow, We talk
about Dragonfly absolutely dragon absolutely yeah. And then we carry
on along to towards Taranaki Street and mention the Saint
James and then do a left into Taranaki Street and
(03:45):
then up goes Knee to Cuba.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
More talk about Cuba all.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
A bit h yeah, and it just keeps going.
Speaker 4 (03:51):
Can I tell you this little story wrong? I love
Please do it.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
I was in my restaurant. I might mention its name,
you can, but I didn't mention it. I'm not to
because my boss is in they're watching me if he's
going to write it down and charge before it. And
this group of beautiful women eighty five old, yes, ten
or twelve of them, beautiful, all dressed up to the
night looked amazing. And I was wondering there and they
were drinking and they were eating and having fun. And
(04:15):
they went over to the matro d and said, can
you organize a couple of a couple of cabs for us?
Or And I thought to myself, that's where I need
Rom's number. Absolutely imagine going through picking.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Them up and then dropping the ball. It would have
been a hell of an experience for them.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
We're operating between nine thirty and four thirty PM, so
we could.
Speaker 4 (04:34):
Do a lunch. Are you're not operating at night?
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Operating at night? And unfortunately, maybe that's something for next year.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Yeah, I think that's a great idea. I think it
should be at night because.
Speaker 3 (04:43):
We've got one bus happening at the moment, and as
I say, it's you know the first time that we've
had it operating. Lots of feedback has been we need
two buses going around all the time.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
And what sort of truck is it? Because it's a
very good looking truck.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
It's a nineteen seater bus. It's a people mover what brand?
Speaker 4 (05:05):
You don't know what branded?
Speaker 3 (05:06):
IV?
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Oh? Yeah, yeah, pretty classy machine.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
It's looking good.
Speaker 4 (05:10):
And have you got sound system and that you talk
to the yes, talk to your passion.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Are they all women.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
And mostly mostly In fact, I had one gentleman said yeah,
I'm the token mail as he walked on. But yeah,
a lot of the time I'm actually stopped. I actually
stopped talking because what happens is the people that are
on the bus they start talking to each other and.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
They say absolutely, and the.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
People from all over New Zealand. We've had some Australians
in there as well, and they start talking to each
other and they go, oh that's where i'm my husband
or you know, I went an eight there twenty five
years ago. It's that sort of thing.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
How much, just how much of well business is return business?
Speaker 4 (05:49):
Do you know what I mean? People you listen to people?
Speaker 3 (05:52):
Yeah, I think I think it's it's very much a
lot of return business. We have a lot of as
far as I'm the wanderer, we have a lot of
people that actually hop on, hop off. I mean, I
had a wheelchair yesterday and said, she said, look, can
we can we come on? And I said, does it
fold down? She said yeah. I said, come on, let's
(06:14):
let's uh, let's put you on. We've got space in
the back. We'll fold it up. And you didn't.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
You didn't put her in the back of the bus.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
No, no, no, the wheelchair and she was able to
get up the steps and we carried on. And she
was there this morning waiting to get from cable car
lane to to Papa and welcome to her aboard.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
Right.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
So, how many people are you on an average trip
you got on the on the bus, We've.
Speaker 3 (06:37):
Got quite quite a few at basically it's full quite
a bit of the time. Hence the need for an
extra bus. I think to do the loop souh you know.
And and as it gets known, I think that'll become
more popular.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
What are the visitors saying about Rise to the latest
show of Well.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Absolutely I went last night and it was absolutely fantastic,
and the people it sort of cemented what the people
are saying that. It's actually a fantastic show, really really good,
thoroughly recommend it to anyone.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Is the buzz around when they hop on?
Speaker 4 (07:15):
Is there a bit of a buzz and a chatter?
You you know what I'm talking?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, yeah I do. It's interesting you talk about the buzz.
You know, Wellingtonians we're a little bit down at the
moment and that, but all the guests are saying, wow,
Wellington is a buzz. We need more shows like this,
we need more activity like this.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
Now, let me tell you we will be really popular.
I reckon the Mecca store in Lampton Key is going
to be very popular because I was when pasted on
Sunday and it was backed nowhere else had and they're
all like, well people.
Speaker 3 (07:42):
You could tell absolutely absolutely yeah. Lots of places around
like that. Yeah, very very good.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
It's good for good for webage age.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
Averagere's probably you know, he's fifty five through to seventy
sort of thing, right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
Really good woman with money.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
We love them absolutely spend spen spend.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Great Ron, lovely to talk to you. Thank you for case.
Ron Irvine. He's the bus driver. He's the Matre.
Speaker 3 (08:10):
D Matre D. I'm dressed I'm dressed, you might.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
Can you come a work for me at nights as well?
Why not? You're not doing anything at nighttime? I know
that's true that you look amazing.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
And the bus, I don't like calling it a bus
because no, it's a bit classier than a bus, doesn't it.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yeah, I don't know what you call it.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
It's very cool people move.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
You will have to think on that.
Speaker 1 (08:31):
Do you know?
Speaker 2 (08:31):
How do you know if someone like me just doesn't
want to jump on and go for a ride around
town without a ticket for well, can I do that?
Speaker 3 (08:36):
So what happens is they have to show their their
WOW ticket.
Speaker 4 (08:41):
But what about it?
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Well, you can generally you can generally tell if they're
well attendees. You know, they're all dressed to the nines
and you wouldn't know you will come for a ride? Okay,
I'll let John.
Speaker 4 (08:54):
Thank you, Ron Irvine. That's called the Wow Wanderer.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
For more from Wellington Mornings with Nick Mills, listen live
to news Talks It'd be Wellington from nine am week days,
or follow the podcast on Heart Radio.
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