Matt's idea of heaven

Sanctuary Weekend

We have just had a great weekend touring some of Wellington's wildlife sanctuaries. On Saturday (the 14th of April), we went to the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, of which we are now members, and did an 8km hike to and from the wind turbine in Brooklyn. The views were fantastic and the hike was so peaceful. Then on Sunday we took a ferry to Somes Island in the middle of Wellington Harbour. The island itself used to be an animal quarantine for the entire country, but now it a wildlife sanctuary. They have recently begun to introduce species to the island that are failing elsewhere in New Zealand. Sadly, we didn't get to see any penguins, but we did see parakeets, shags, giant wetas, and skinks.

Festivals

Hi all,

I know we haven't written too much entries in this blog so far, but we have an excuse! Festivals! It seems that every weekend since we arrived in Wellington there's been at least one festival. Whether its a street fair in Petone, or a Indian food fête, a parade through downtown, or an Italian festival at the harbour. Wellitonians are spoilt for choice when it comes to things to do in town at the weekend. There's been dragon boat racing, and offshore powerboats, and even triathlons around the bays. Gretchen and I haven't even had a chance to get bored.

Wellington is a busy place in the summer, but we'll try to put up some more posts, and photos!, now that we're entering the autumn.

Easter weekend

Hi All,

Well, we've had our first holiday weekend of our, er, year long holiday...

We thought we'd test out our new car by heading up to Taranaki (halfway up the west coast of the North Island) on Friday morning and after a 4 hour drive got there around lunchtime, and headed straight for Mt. Taranaki - a 2,518 metre dormant volcano which dominates the landscape.

We spent a couple of days in the national park, which offers a number of great hikes around the volcano. You can drive halfway up to the peak and hike further up, affording amazing views of the plains below, extending out to the sea. The trails were great and as the area is a rain forest, everything is lush green and covered in moss, and the trails were crisscrossed with streams and waterfalls.

The Taranaki region itself is full of rolling hills and farmland, and the small villages dotted around seem to compete with each other, boasting of being the capital of this or that each with their own kitch giant statue of cows or loaves of bread etc.

Larger is the regional capital of New Plymouth, the major city in the region. Although small by city standards, it has a nice regional cultural identity and serves as the biggest port on the west coast. We headed there one afternoon and walked along the waterfront, to look at the wind wand, a 45 metre narrow piece of carbon fibre modern art which sways in the wind.

All-in-all a great getaway and a nice break from city life!