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Published: November 15th 2008
Wellington 01-07 10 08
This evening we arrived at Peter and Fiona’s house in Wellington. Peter had just returned from cycling home from work, all sweaty and red faced when he met us with his daughter Alice. I’m not surprised at the state he was in, in fact I think he’s gone a little crazy, Wellington’s all hills!
It was really good to see my old buddy if not a little surreal. Pete left the UK last September, a big leap by any standards especially with three young children. Fiona and the kids looked very well, Dominic who was just a couple of months old when they left was walking and grunting a few sounds, he’s too cute for his own good. Alice and Cameron have also shot up; it was good that they hadn’t forgotten us.
We were made very welcome and relaxed very quickly, although after sleeping in the van for the last month a soft fluffy bed was a little bizarre for the 1st night anyway. Being able to sit up in the warmth to eat and with electricity was bliss, it’s amazing how quickly you adapt without these modern conveniences, to be honest even
though we were excited at seeing Pete and the family we were a little sad to leave the van, it has become home. This madness soon faded after a hot meal, hot shower and several beers with my buddy, good times.
The next morning we arose to Pete cooking pancakes, blue skies and a trip to the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. The Sanctuary was excellent, full of Tui, Kaka, Fantails, Welcome Swallows, Bellbird & Stitchbird all set in outstanding natural beauty consisting of hills covered with tree ferns and hanging moss, also a breathtaking lake-side walk. This reserve comes in only second to Tiritiri for its wealth of birdlife. I filled an 8gig SD card with some excellent shots. We even saw two Tuatara lizards.
During the next couple of days we visited the Botanical Gardens in Wellington (highly recommended) with a cable car ride down the hill from the observatory, Te Papa museum (recommended), The Civic Gallery (Fiona Hall exhibit) not all to my taste but still very interesting if not a little explicit in places.
I think the personal highlight for me was the 8km return walk along the breathtaking coastline aptly named Red Rocks because
The boys cooking the Kiwi way
moments later the rain hit us!!!!of the iron rich deposits in the coastal rocks. Our primary aim was to reach the fur seal colony. What a pleasure to be so up close and personal with such magnificent wild animals. You don’t want to be downwind from them though as they suffer from a little halitosis. Pili and I had planned to do this walk before arriving at Pete’s. I’m very glad we decided not to and waited to share this experience together with Pete and his family. I think Alice enjoyed this as well, we had a good chat on the return back to the car, she must have been cold and knackered, I know I was and I had warm clothes and longer legs than her, well done Alice.
Well we had a great week with the family, lots of laughs, and a few fuax pars by Pili, as usual, she referred to baby Dominic as a little runt thinking it was endearing, Pete corrected her much to her embarrassment. I probably drank a little too much NZ beer & red wine with Pete in the evenings but it was great catching up, when in Rome and all that stuff (thanks Fiona for
putting up with us). Fiona, Alice and Cameron dragged Pili orienteering on Sunday morning, I laughed so hard I fell back to sleep. On returning they admitted to getting very lost……No comment!!
We will return after our tour of the south Island, I hope the weather is good so that we can fulfil the promise we made to Cameron to take him fishing. I also intend to visit Kapiti Island, fingers crossed.
Oh yeah, Pete recommended a Steak n’ Cheese pie, we had one disaster with a nasty garage pie; we finally hit gold with Pete’s regular supplier in town. Ummm pies….
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