A few days in Wellington….

School holidays and we decided to spend a few days in Wellington. We drove from Napier to Wellington and followed the State Highways through Palmerston North and down the West (Kapiti) Coast into Wellington City. Driving through the Manawatu Gorge along side the river had some spectacular views. Wished we’d stopped for some pictures but the viewing points were on the other side of the road! Something for next time!

This is what we did...

Friday 25th - Arrived Wellington 4pm. Went on a walk about around.


Saturday 26th – Retail Therapy for the kids! They thought it was like being back in London! So many shops! Then in the Afternoon we went on a Seal Safari. We were picked up by a four wheel drive vehicle and driven over the hills and valleys of Wellington's South Coast towards the seal Colony. It's amasing to think that in such a short time out of the city we were in such wilderness. We stopped to take views back down onto Wellington City and Harbour.



Then we continued our trip driving along the beach until we reached the seals. These are New Zealand Fur Seals and we were told by our guide that this is where all the bachelors hang out until the breeding seasons starts! Some of them were in the sea, most were sun bathing! Click on the picture below for a sideshow!



Then we headed back along the shoreline and back into town.



Sunday 27th – Visit to Te Papa and the Whale Exhibition. Lots of exhibits and video shows…. As the kiwi’s say it was Awesome!




After the museum we took the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens, had a cappuccino!, and came back down.



Then we headed to the water front and took a wander around the French Frigate Vandemiaire.



Lastly the kids and I went on a helicopter flight over Wellington.




The views from above were truly spectacular. One picture is of the 'Beehive', this is a building that houses the ministerial offices. Another picture is of the 'cake tin' this is the Westpac statium. We really enjoyed this!




Then back the hotel to, in the kids words ‘chill out’, before going back to the Green Parrot for a meal and then to the cinema to watch Run Fat Boy Run!






Monday 28th - Not a good start to the day.! When we went back to the car, the interior light had been left on since Friday and the car battery was flat! We tried to get a jump start from one of the hotel staffs car. But the Terrano being a 3.2 diesel had a totally flat battery and jumping it wouldn’t work! So we had to call a Car Battery company out, $300 lighter we then set off on our return journey. This time we headed out of Wellington using State Highway 2 and traveling up through the Hutt Valley on the Eastern side of the mountains. There is particular part of the route which is very twisty with steep drops. I was driving and so didn’t have the views of the steep drops. In some places it’s just a picket fence between you and the drop!! The car breaks got very smelly!! Eventually we made it through all the twisty roads and headed towards Masterton. There were very good views of the wind turbine farm on the way back. We didn’t stop on the way back, well only to change drivers and eventually made it home around 16:30 a four hour journey!

NZ Scenery!

Along State Highway 5 between Taupo and Napier is a bridge that spans the Mohaka River. Back in December (our summer) Dan canoed down here as part of his 'outdoor adventure' trip with school. As you can see.....typical Saturday commuter route!



We stopped off and climbed down the bank. There is a walkway under the bridge. Not sure if we where suppose to climb up on to it... as I think it is used for maintenance inspection. But we did anyway! Walking under the bridge is fine until a big lorry drives over the top then it feels like the whole bridge is shaking!! Kids enjoyed it.. We walked to the far end and back again!



The views down under the bridge (left and right) are amazing! And this is where Dan remembered going with the school!

Cape Kidnappers

Today (Sunday) was a nice sunny day and the temperature was up to the middle 20's so we decided that we would go for an explore down at Cape Kidnappers which is at the southern end of Hawkes Bay. There is a huge 'Gannet Colony' and various tours run either overland or by the beach to view the colony.

Some info from a Tourist site...

Cape Kidnappers was named by Captain Cook in 1769. But although he and his companions made detailed observations of sea birds in the area, no reference was made about nesting gannets. Cook had reason to remember Kidnappers, for he named it after an incident in which local Maoris unsuccessfully tried to kidnap his Tahitian interpreter. The French explorer Dumont D'Urville passed within a league of the Cape in February 1827. Although he recorded gannets in the sea north of Cape Palliser and again near East Cape, he also made no mention of them at Kidnappers. It wasn't until 1870 that Henry Hill, an early Hawke's Bay naturalist, reported the existence of a gannet colony at the Cape and recorded the population as not exceeding 50. It is believed that this first gannetry was established in the 1850s on a saddle of the promontory. The population of the saddle colony has now stabilised at about 2200 pairs.

This is the Cape, I don't know how to take a panoramic view picture, so have stuck two shots together, just so that you get the idea!



Action of the sea and wind has carved interesting shapes out of the soft sands and shingles of the cliffs. You can see the different layers of the cliffs and the shingle and shells trapped in the layers.



As always, Louise manages to find a friend when we're out!



Marine life.... I don't think it was too healthy! Louise put it back in the water!



The view back from our walk!

Louise's New Friend!

Louise has a little job.... It involves her absolute favorite animal a dog! 3 days a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (after school!) she dog walks for an elderly lady who can't manage to get out any more. She is paid $10 a walk!

The dog is a poodle, called 'Shadow'.....Here are some pics of them!

Outdoor Educational Challenge!

Yesterday (Monday 31st) I had to drop Louise off at school with her 'kit' for her 'Outdoor Educational Challenge trip'! (Camp to you and I!). A few days with her school friends tramping in the bush...



The strange clothes are.... polyprop (thermals!) leggings, boardshorts, Polyprop top, tee-shirt and wooly hat!



Once she's back I'll update here the activies they did!

Hello, Louise here...

On the 1st day of camp me and my classmates took the coach from school to the "Kaweka Ranges"...a.k.a The Campsite, we then went on a 5 and a half hour walk through native forests to our first campiste. After we ate dinner, we built "bivouacs" which is basically a tent made of tarpaulin and string. We then played a few games before heading to our cold (but dry) bivouacs.

On the 2nd day we were put into groups of 5 or 6 for "river crossing challenges" this involved linking onto each other to cross rivers ranging from different heights, e.g from ankle height to just above waist height. The river was EXTREMELY cold and in some places the current was quite strong. After that, we had lunch and then prepared ourselves for rafting down to our next campsite. Even though I fell out of my raft a couple of times and got absoloutely SOAKING, it was really fun because I had a good laugh with all my mates...The 2nd night wasnt too bad because all the girls slept in the same tent and was bigger so we stayed up most of the night chatting...

On the last day after having breakfast, we walked for about 10 minutes until we got to a bridge, we then climbed down a hill to the bottom of the bridge and were pulled up one by one on a rope, we were safely secured by "Clippy Thingys" (this is what the instructor told us). It was really fun because being high up and seeing how small everyone looked on the ground was quite funny, and even my teacher went up!. After that, we got on the coach and headed back to school for 2:30 pm.

Overall, I really enjoyed camp because it was a really good experience, plus, the whole class got on really well and it was a good chance to hang out with my friends outside of school.