Tuesday 29 April 2008

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!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday Helen.

From David and Linda.