Blogs from Wellington, Wellington Region, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 10

SUNDAY - Afternoon, after internet of the last blog... After a gruelling 3 hours of internet writing it was back to the van for lunch and then wanted to get educated with the cultural knowledge of New Zealand, so a free activity was presented to us on our arrival to the city; The Te Papa Museum of New Zealand. As with all big cities/capital cities there is a museum presenting the history of it's country, wildlife, culture and employment etc. It was a very good museum one of the best I've been to I'd say covering everything I'd want to know about New Zealand. The highlight for me was a cinema room which played 6 short solo (doc's about one person) documentaries about a handful of interesting and intruiging people who live in NZ; one woman ... read more

Today we headed out to another seal colony to monitor again. This one was nearer to home but meant a 1 and a half hour walk from the van along the coast to get to the colony. The wind was blowing again today and I feel like I will be bent double soon from having to walk against the wind. The scenery was again stunning and the weather meant that the waves were more then impressive. It was not surprising that the seals were all out of the waves as they were getting pounded on the rocks. Today unlike the last time there were many more male seals instead of pups and mothers. This also meant that the smell increased 100 fold. It was disgusting! At times I really thought I was going to be sick ... read more

Well today we headed out for what we hoped would be an exciting day. We were going to monitor the seal populations on the South coast. I have never seen so many seals in one spot. They stank. But were very cute! After counting what Dan called Long Brown Cigars we headed up a vertical path, nearly killed me, and saw one of the locations where they filmed Lord of the Rings. Apparently it is the valley of the death. Was a great day and now I need sleep. Enjoy the piccies. K x... read more

Its shocking that its taken me so long to get round to getting this blog sorted out - no excuse really! My Mum & Dad left us about 5 weeks ago but then Jo-Ann's Mum arrived and, well we've just been busy! Doing what, I don't know. It was so great to have my Mum & Dad visit - we had a fantastic time showing them around and I know they had one of the best holidays they've ever had. I think its fair to say, they'll be coming back again. Overall, they did well with the weather - the only exceptions being a coolish day in Milford Sound and a pretty wild, windy and cold weekend in Napier with us. On the latter weekend, there was a strong southerly front battering the east coast and ... read more

Just two nights in Wellington, to draw up our attack plan for North Island and of course to celebrate Sara's birthday. We wandered around the city a bit before going and watching Kink Knog ( kind of like that typo ). It wasn't very celebratory though as Sara spent most of the morning saying "I hope they don't still kill the monkey", then blubbed her eyes out for the whole second half and spent the rest of the evening miserably saying "They shouldn't have killed the monkey should they?". Unfortunately Sara's birthday is a high profile event and no photographs were permitted.... read more