Wellington 12 & 13

Wellington Harbour from the car on the way in.

 

 

We picked up Jenny and David from the Wellington airport and went to our apartment. This is the view from the balcony.

 

 

The first thing we did was was walk around the harbour to the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa. One of the exhibitions was a rather graphic exhibit about Gallipoli.

 

 

A Maori entrance.

 

 

Next day we took the Cable Car which climbs 120 metres up the hill to the top entrance of the Botanical Gardens.

 

 

 

On the way up we were treated to a light show in the tunnels.

 

There is a cable car museum at the top.

 

 

The view is impressive.

 

 

Many of the houses are wooden. Some houses on the steep hills have their own little cable cars for the use of the owners.

 

 

We walked downhill through the Botanical Gardens, which were lush and interesting.

 

 

In the Begonia House at the bottom of the hill.

 

 

David, Jenny and Bill at the rose garden.

 

 

Part of Parliament House, known as the beehive.

 

 

Street art nearby.

 

 

The birthplace of New Zealand's most famous writer, Katherine Mansfield.

 

 

 

 

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Napier back to Wellington.

The National Aquarium is in Napier and we saw a Kiwi here. No photos though!

 

 

A seahorse.

 

 

Close up and personal with a big turtle.

 

 

Lots of Fairy Penguins here. They have all been rescued one way or another.

 

 

Gardens in Napier.

 

 

Taking a tour!

 

 

The Napier Port. Many cruise ships dock there now.

 

 

Our favourite visit was to the Mission Estate Winery, in the hills just outside of Napier. It was established in 1851 by pioneering French Missionaries, the Marist Brothers, and is considered to be the birthplace of New Zealand wine.

 

 

It is in a beautifully restored seminary building

 

 

Bill by the fountain in the grounds.

 

 

The Mission wine barrels.

 

 

Like most of the North Island, it is very windy around this area and tall hedges like this are built to protect the crops.

 

 

Heading back towards Wellington, we stopped at Hastings for a while, where we met Chloe and her friends.

 

That that night we stayed at a peppers Resort at Martinborough, a little town in the Wairarapa wine country.

 

Beautiful grounds.

 

 

Even a hedgehog!

 

 

We set off early the next day to pick Jenny and David at the Wellington Airport. It was a lovely drive through the hills. This memorial commemorates the march that 60,000 of New Zealand's First World War troops made over the Rimutakas from Featherston Camp to Upper Hutt.

 

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Napier New Zealand January 9, 10 & 11 2016

We are on the North Island of New Zealand for a couple of weeks, mainly to meet up with Jenny and David, who have flown over from England to visit Josh and Silvina in Christchurch. Somehow we got upgraded to business from Sydney to Auckland on the way over, although it was not too exciting on such a short trip. If only they would do that when we are on our way to Europe! We arrived just after midnight, so spent what was left of the first night near the airport. Next morning we drove to Napier for a few days.

 

First stop was Paraparaumu, the first of many pebble beaches we saw, where we watched the kite surfers.

 

 

Lunch was at Palmerston North. This is a statue of the Ghost of the Hui, a now extinct bird.

 

 

Mauri pouwhenua carved poles in front of the Civic Administration Building.

 

 

The drive through the Manawatu Gorge was pretty.

 

 

Next stop was the heritage village of Norsewood, the home of the trolls. Many hard working Scandinavians settled in this area from 1873.

 

 

Finally we arived in Napier and this was the view of the beach from our room. The sculpture is the Millennium sculpture of the rising sun.

 

 

Napier is renown as New Zealand's Art Decor capital because when an earthquake savaged the city in 1931, it was rebuilt in Art Decor style archecture.

 

 

The water front.

 

 

A typical Art Decor building in the town.

 

 

There are quite a lot of interesting art works around town. Love this 1930's woman and her dog, called A Wave in Time.

 

 

Massive flower pot!

Street seats.

 

 

Another Art Decor building.

 

 

Even the street signs are Art Decor style.

 

 

A mural.

 

 

Another!

 

 

Waiting for the bus.

 

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