Blogs from Wellington, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 4

A trip up on the Wellington cable car to the Botanical Gardens and then a visit to Zealandia nature reserve.... read more

Long time, no see. Since my Christmas Blog we have been doing the "normal life" thing of bits and pieces around the house, seeing the kids in Hawkes Bay and enjoying the summer. We are now into Autumn and it is certainly getting cooler in the evenings and mornings. Mid February, Di had her 2nd knee replaced. This has turned out to be a quicker recovery time than her 1st one , done 6 months ago and she is getting around well and improving every day. Now in early April she is walking really well. Planning for the Northern Hemisphere trip this year has been pretty much finalised. We head away from New Zealand on the 2nd of July and return to NZ on the 4th of October. So our plan is to spend our first ... read more

The C.O. Is not happy with the fitness level of the squad so she has ordered a walking tour of Wellington. After an early breakfast we mustered at the Tourist Information Centre at 9.45 and met our tour guide (Tina). We set of on the tour mainly marching in single file. Tina was knowledgable and thorough and we saw many impressive buildings and places that we would not have realised the significance. Tina's special interest was sculpture and pointed out and explained many examples on our route. Not sure the C.O. was totally impressed. There were constant reminders that Wellington was in the middle of an active earthquake zone. As Wellington is the capital of N.Z., many of the impressive buildings were owned by the government. The politicians have decreed a new, enhanced specification for earthquake ... read more

I am sitting in Wellington airport lounge trying to catch up on my blog. I apologise if I am not up to date but it is very difficult to keep up with events as catering for the C. O.'s every need can be time consuming. The pods are packed and loaded into the beast. We said our fond farewells to Brian and Lynda Tasker and thanked them profusely for putting up with us and their terrific hospitality and hoped that we have an opportunity to reciprocate should they travel to the U. K. again. The beast purred along highway 2 eating up the kilometres. The C.O. was relieved of speed controller duty as she delegated this to the satnav. We stopped for a coffee in Phaiatua which was rather scruffy and hosted some rather scruffy people. ... read more

Yes, I know, this next episode has come along very quickly, but as this was to be our last stop on the North Island, I thought it was a covenient point to finish a post, before we move on to South Island. Now, when we talk about 'Wellington', a number of different things come to mind. The Duke of Wellington, of course..........Napoleon's conqueror at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815; Beef Wellington, that classic cut of beef wrapped in pastry (or an upmarket Cornish Pasty to some), or even Paddington's iconic red Wellies, all the way from Peru! But today we are on our way to another famous Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand and the southern tip of the North Island. The journey is about 220 miles and we knew that, for the most ... read more