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Published: November 1st 2005
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Belmont Regional Park
We could go through the cow pasture and step over cow patties, but not go through the sheep pasture. So after visiting Auckland and buying our car, we travelled to Wellington. We drove straight through, car overpacked, on small winding roads, at night, driving on the "wrong side of the road" in a strange land, for 9 hours, give or take. Wouldn't recommend doing it that way, but we needed to find a place to live, get the kids in school and start setting up a place to call home. Fortunately Scott's company paid for a two week stay in a hotel that had a small kitchen, dining and living room as well as two bedrooms. By the end of that first week we found a rental home.The kids started school and Scott started work the beginning of the second week. By the end of that week we had beds, refrigerator, washing machine, dishes, the list goes on. I got sick of shopping. Each trip to a new store was an adventure as getting used to driving on the left side and negotiating around roundabouts going counterclockwise is just a little unnerving.
Kids have adjusted to their new school so easily and have made many new friends very quickly. Jayme started at gymastics the night before she started school, and
Kids first day of school
We were still living at the hotel when the kids went to school, so this is where we took the picture the next day at school was surprised to see one of her fellow gym mates in her class at school. We are actually living in Upper Hutt, a small town with a village feel. Everyone seems to know everyone here. Upper Hutt is located 30 min. by car. Scott takes the commuter train into Wellinton to work each day. The public transportation system is really good here, something we are not accustomed to from the US.
We finally went out for some adventures after getting somewhat settled into our place. One of the first hikes we did was to the Pinnacles, where a scene for the Lord of the Rings was filmed. (Halls of the Dead, for those in the know) Its an awesome place where the forces of nature can be seen. There are fragile rock pinnacles reaching high overhead. You can brush your hand up against the walls and parts will flake away. Its and eery place. After spending a few hours there, the kids just thought it was the best place they had ever been to. Afterwards we drove along the ocean on a small road. On the map I saw that there was a seal colony
Kiatoke Regional Park
This is the spot where Rivendell was constructed and filmed for the Lord of the Rings. marked at the end of the road. Well, what a place! On a grassy part of the beach we saw a number of seals, they are stinky things. Just up the road we could see a spectalur outcropping of rock. We drove up started climbing and much to our surprise there were dozens of seals, and lots of babies. The kids didn't think the pinnacles could be topped, but this place was just so fabulous that they had a new favorite place. Unfortunatley, someone, I won't say who or should I Zach, left the memory stick for my camera back at home in the laptop, so I only had about 10 pictures I could take on the internal memory in my camera. Oh well, that gives us a good excuse to go back to the place again.
Another cool spot we went to, again a Lord of the Rings location (Rivendell) is just a 15 min. drive from our house in Kaitoke Park. Just a pleasant, lush kind of place.There are a few signs to read about the making of Rivendell. We also learned that its the watershed for the Wellington region, so yes we have Rivendell water to drink.
Seal Lions
Yes the kids are probably too close to such a wild creature. It rolled over and barked at them then went back to sleep. Another time we took a hike in Belmont regional part with beautiful views of the Hutt Valley, the harbor and Wellington beyond. We planned to make it to the top of the mountain, but a sign told us we couldn't go on. Its was lambing season. Landowners of special properties are required to allow access to hikers, but can close their pastures for lambing season. At least we got to do most of the hike and we only drove a few minutes to get there. One other time we drove 2 hours, got lost on some unmarked back roads. When we finally made it to our destination it was "closed due to lambing" new phrase for our vocab and now something we will check out before hiking during lambing season.
Its when we are out driving around the countryside or visiting a spectacular beach that the fullness of reality that we are living in New Zealand hits us.
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