My Hometown Today

Today was a lovely warm day in Brisbane so I went for a walk into the city as we live close by. This is a view of the South Bank Parklands from the Victoria Bridge which leads into the city. South Bank would be the number one tourist attraction of Brisbane, there is so much to see and do there and it even has its own beach, the only inner city beach in Australia.

                                        

                             

Retirement has allowed me the time to become a volunteer (when I'm not travelling). I have three volunteer positions, one of them as a Brisbane Greeter which I thoroughly enjoy.

Brisbane Greeters is a free public service introducing tourists and locals to our beautiful city. My particular tour/walk usually takes around 3 hours and I love sharing my city with visitors and showing them places of interest that they wouldn't find on their own. If you ever find yourself in Brisbane, make sure you enjoy a Brisbane Greeters tour. Here I am showing some Malaysian visitors around.

                              

Another view of the city today from the other side of the Victoria Bridge. As you can see, a lovely day!

                              

Goodbye to New Zealand

Our last night here in Upper Hutt and flying back home to Brisbane tomorrow. We collected our homeowners from the airport today after their wonderful trip to South America where they took lots of photos. We are very envious of their boat trip to the Galapagos Islands. On our South American trip we went to the Ballestas Islands, known as the poor man's Galapagos. There is nothing like the real thing!

It will be sad to say goodbye to the pets that we have been caring for and also the alpacas and cattle. The three pregnant cows are due to have their calves within the next few weeks, so we are looking forward to seeing photos of them. And a big thank you to the chickens who kept us in free range fresh eggs, we ate about 3 dozen eggs a week. 

This is not the end of my blog, there will be more adventures coming up, so stay tuned!

                            

                             

NZ Parliament and a Beer

Today was a lovely day weather wise so we took the train into Wellington again. We walked from the train station to Parliament House and found there was a free tour so at the last minute decided to join it. On the tour we saw the three buildings that comprise the New Zealand Parliament. First up was the Executive Building (commonly known as The Beehive) where the day to day work gets done. I guess you can see why they call it The Beehive!

                            

              

Next to it is Parliament House which was finished in 1922, beautifully made of local marble. We went into the Chamber where the House of Representatives sits and like most Parliaments, it's very grand. As they only just had an election last Saturday, there were many new Parliamentarians being taken around on tours and learning the processes.

                            

                            

The third building was the Parliamentary Library, my favourite. Completed in 1899, the interiors were exquisite! Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside any of the buildings.

                            

There is quite a bit of history of fires and earthquakes involved with these buildings but the future looks brighter as back in 1992-1995 the buildings were placed on more than 400 rubber bearings using base isolation techniques. Basically it means that when an earthquake hits, the buildings have the ability to move sideways. Quite an amazing invention, we were taken underneath the buildings to see for ourselves how it was done. After all this history, it was time for a beer and some lunch and The Thistle Inn established in 1840 was just the place. Cheers!

                             

                             

Snow and an Earthquake

Yesterday, we had snow on the ranges behind us, this photo was taken from one of our paddocks today. No snow here but lots of rain and hail all day, it was freezing outside and then this morning, the earth moved for us here in New Zealand. There was a 5.5 magnitude earthquake just north of us at 2.40am and I slept right through it! 

                           

                           

Today is a new day and the sun is out so we went for a walk on the trail beside the Hutt River. There were lots of people out walking their dogs after being stuck inside yesterday.

                            

                            

I think I have solved the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster. Nessie is here in New Zealand, washed up on the rocks.

                          

                           

This housesit is almost over as we collect the homeowners from the airport on Thursday and we fly back home to Brisbane on Friday. It's been great doing something completely different to our usual lifestyle and we've certainly enjoyed it. Also been asked to housesit in April next year for a couple who live closer to Auckland and also have a lifestyle block but with cows and sheep, not alpacas. It would give us a chance to explore a different part of NZ so we are considering it but in the meantime we have a trip to Canberra to see the grandchildren, a 14 night cruise sailing from Brisbane and a housesit at Christmas time in Canberra.

Bring on the adventures!

Flowers For Mimi

Rain, rain and more rain! That's what is happening here. The last few days we have been staying close to home, although we did drive to Plimmerton last night as we were invited to an election night party. Since arriving in New Zealand we have been inundated with election information, every day in the newspaper and every night on the television. Well, thank goodness, it's over as voting was yesterday and last night the winning party was announced. We found our way to Plimmerton (about 40 minutes drive) on a dark and very gloomy night but ended up having a lovely time meeting the locals and watching the election results with them.

No photos from me but this one was emailed from my daughter in Canberra. This is my little granddaughter inspecting the daffodils yesterday at the Canberra Floriade, Australia's biggest celebration of Spring, an annual event since 1988. As we are off to Canberra in 10 days time, hopefully we will get a chance to visit Floriade and see the displays.

                           

A Tree and a Lake

On our walk down the main street of Greytown we saw this huge tree ahead of us and found it to be one of New Zealand's historic trees, an Australian Mountain Ash. It was planted from one of three seedlings stolen from a wheelbarrow in 1856.

                           

This is me standing beside the large trunk and below is the interesting story of how it came to be planted here.

                         

                          

On the way back to Upper Hutt we decided to go and view Lake Wairarapa, the third largest lake in the North Island. It was hard to get a good photo as it was so blustery it almost blew me over!

                         

It's hard to believe that we only have another week left in Upper Hutt before we fly back to Brisbane and onto the next adventure!

A Town Called Greytown

On the way home from Masterton, we stopped at Greytown to have lunch in one of the many lovely restaurants. Greytown was first settled in 1854 and although quite small now it's a very popular weekend and tourist destination with antique stores, restaurants and boutiques. This is the town where the first Arbor Day planting happened in New Zealand in 1890 and just by walking down the main street you find these cute cottages.

                          

                          

                          

The locals are obviously very proud of their little town as there are lots of flowering plants and beautifully kept parks and gardens. I had a laugh when I saw this sign outside the local hotel. I'm sure many husbands would enjoy staying at the Husband Creche!

                          

A Visit to Masterton

Yesterday we drove north east to visit the town of Masterton, the largest town in the Wairarapa region. An interesting article said that there was only an increase of 6 people from the 2001 census to the 2006 census.The drive to Masterton took us over the Rimutaka Range again, a very winding road with quite a spectacular view from the top. A friend of a friend owns a local bookstore in Masterton, so we made sure to call in and say hello.

                          

It was quite a blustery day and cool again, after the nice spell of warmer weather that we have had. As usual, some of the buildings caught my eye, particularly this art deco building built in 1938, it houses the daily newspaper headquarters.

                          

                          

The Chambers built in 1892 was the former Council Chambers and Public Library.

                                      

This photo was taken this morning while we were out walking the dog. A beautiful morning over the Mangaroa Valley that has lots of lifestyle blocks while at home in Australia they are called hobby farms.

                           

Visiting the Spring Festival

The Upper Hutt Spring Festival was on yesterday, so we decided to go and see what it was all about. Quite a lot of stalls were set up in the main street which was closed for the day. There were the usual arts and crafts, second hand book stalls, lots of different foods and rides for the children. It must be a highlight for the locals as there was a very good turnout.

                           

There were some wonderful vintage cars to look at including this beautifully restored hearse.

                           

                           

When we arrived here 3 weeks ago, the branches of this tree were bare and now look at it! Blossoms everywhere, I have no idea what kind of tree it is, if anyone does, please let me know.

                           

We were so lucky yesterday morning because we were given a little gift, a dead rat left in the hallway. It was obviously from one of these cuddly cats but neither of them are saying! I have my suspicions that it may have been Thomas. We had been warned by the homeowners that gifts are often delivered but this was our first one and hopefully the last one!

                                       

A very rainy Sunday here, so a day spent mostly inside reading, cooking and relaxing in front of the fire, because we can and a fire is just lovely!

A Drive to Eastbourne

One of our neighbours here suggested we take a drive to Eastbourne, a small seaside town on the other side of the harbour from Wellington. It's about a 30 minute drive from Wellington but you can also catch a ferry from the city, a 20 minute boat ride. I imagine the area is very popular in the summer as there are lots of little bays with lovely sheltered beaches. The town itself has the usual cafes, art galleries and little quirky shops. In the photo below, you can see Wellington in the distance.

                        

Some of the houses are built on the side of the ridge and would have spectacular views over the harbour. The position and size of the block would determine what kind of house could be built and the design of some houses are quite creative.

                        

                        

                        

There was a lot of driftwood on the beach and we noticed quite a few sculptures (?) dotted here and there.

                        

Then we spotted a group of boys making a driftwood sculpture. They seemed to be from the local school and the supervising teacher was relaxing and enjoying the sunshine. Not too sure what school subject driftwood comes under! Perhaps an art class.

                        

Eastbourne was a nice little town for a visit and it was great to stretch our legs with a long walk on the foreshore.

Another Visit to Wellington

On this visit to Wellington we drove as we wanted to go to the Mt Victoria lookout where the views are quite spectacular. On one side you can see the airport runway and watch the planes fly in and out and the other side gives you views of the city centre and harbour.

                            

                            

On the drive down we noticed lots of locals out walking and jogging on the many tracks that are in the parklands, lovely to see people out and about enjoying their city. Our next stop was the famous Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. The outside of the building is very striking and inside it is just as amazing. A very modern museum, we found the displays and activities so interesting, we hope to have another visit there as we didn't see everything.

                            

A rather strange looking bridge that connects the heart of the city to the waterfront, called the City to the Sea Bridge. It's a pedestrian bridge and public artwork that looks mostly constructed of timber.

                            

Some of the artwork on top of the bridge.

                            

                            

Another nice day in the city but then home to these gorgeous creatures. Just watching them is fun especially when they are playing with each other, they bounce about rather than run, very cute!

                            

A Drive to Martinborough

The day started off a bit gloomy but we decided to drive to Martinborough anyway. Known as a wine village and surrounded by wineries, we had been told by friends to make sure we visited the town and we weren't disappointed. What a pretty little town, it was named after John Martin, an Irish immigrant who bought a sheep station in 1879 and subdivided it to establish the town and named it after himself. Some of the lovely old buildings still exist such as the Martinborough Hotel built in 1882 and the old Post Office in 1896.

                            

                            

The main town square is quite large and interesting to see that the gardens were planted with herbs and vegetables, hopefully for the residents to use!                     

                                      

                                                 

On our walk around the town, I found this unusual gate into a tiny courtyard and peeked inside to discover........

                      

                         

                           

                          

Walking around towns and cities allows you to discover places that you would not find if you were driving past in a car.