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. 

Porirua

The last few days it's been raining and we haven't ventured too far from home. We did take a drive to Porirua one day as we wanted to visit the New Zealand Police Museum and do a few of the scenic walks around the harbour but in the end we just visited the Museum as it was too wet to go walking. Porirua has a lovely big harbour and on a good day it would be beautiful but you can see from the photos why they call New Zealand the land of the long white cloud.

                             

                             

                             

The Police Museum was interesting with many exhibits and collections from over the years. They even have a stuffed police dog on display so he must have been a very special dog.

                            

Look at these fine gentlemen, don't they look smart in their uniforms!

                           

We are collecting about 20 eggs a day from our chickens, some of them go to friends or neighbours but we are still left with lots of yummy free range eggs. Apart from eating eggs for breakfast every day, we are trying to use them in lots of different ways. The latest one was Rob's idea, ice cream! The real old fashioned kind just like Grandma used to make, long before ice cream makers were invented. Simply egg yolks, cream, a little honey and vanilla and you have the most tastiest and creamy ice cream I have ever eaten and the beautiful colour is all because of the egg yolks.

                          

                            

Day to Day Life in New Zealand

Homeowners use housesitters because they can go away on holiday knowing that life will continue pretty much the same for their pets as they are being cared for in their own home. There are no expensive boarding kennel fees plus the bonus that someone is living in their home for security. 

Housesitters like the experience of a holiday and living in different places. But it's not all easy living as there is still a house to clean and animals to care for although not all housesits involve looking after pets.

Our duties here in New Zealand include feeding 2 lots of chickens morning and late afternoon and collecting their eggs and feeding the dog and 2 cats. We walk the dog twice a day and even feed the worm farm! These are our normal everyday duties and then every 3-5 days we move the alpacas and cattle to new paddocks and make sure they have fresh water, all very easy. We use a quad bike to collect firewood from another part of the farm.  Apart from the normal cleaning in the house, the rest of the day is up to us, we can either go out and explore or simply stay home and relax. Our homeowners have given us the use of a car and also mountain bikes with lots of good areas to ride around.

These are our temporary pets, all very loving and quite happy to have anyone feed and cuddle them!

                                

The back verandah has a comfy seating area where we can enjoy the afternoon sunshine or watch the lovely sunsets.

                                

At the moment it's spring here in the southern hemisphere. The daffodils which are my favourite flowers are beautiful and the scenery here is lovely.

                                

                                

Our past housesits have been in cities or small towns and this is our first country one (and overseas). It's so very different from our inner city life in Brisbane! 

Wellington

It has been 8 years since I last visited Wellington and the weather that day was terrible, cold and windy. Today it was like a different city, the weather was gorgeous and warm and we ended up carrying our coats around all day. For those overseas readers of my blog, Wellington has the nickname Windy Wellington.

We loved the train ride, a 45 minute trip on a very new and clean train. The cost was very reasonable too, a day ticket costing $NZ14. We could have ridden on trains all day with that ticket but we just went return to Wellington. 

                          

A visit to Wellington must include a ride on the Cable Car. It runs from Lambton Quay up to the Botanic Gardens at Kelburn where you have spectacular views of the central business district and across the harbour. At the top there is a Cable Car Museum, an Observatory and of course the Botanic Gardens which were lovely to walk around. 

                          

The city has some lovely buildings even though fires and earthquakes have destroyed many of the early buildings. I particularly liked the Old Bank Arcade & Chambers built between 1899 and 1901.

                          

This building in Cuba Street was different, the pastel colours are not to my taste.

                             

We had lunch on the waterfront and it was lovely to see so many of the locals out enjoying the sunshine. I took a lot more photos of Wellington and there are still many more places to see, so another visit is planned next week. 

To be continued.......               

               

A Bit of Rain

It's been a drizzly day here today, although every now and then the sun shines through. We drove into Upper Hutt today to get some groceries and find the train station as tomorrow we are taking the train to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. It would only take us about 30 minutes to drive there but we love trains.

The cost of living in New Zealand is very similar to Australia, some things cheaper and some dearer. In Australia, I love Jazz apples but as they come from New Zealand they are usually quite expensive at home but here much cheaper. Some things I bought today, Eve apples and New Zealand yams, never seen these in Australia. The apples are lovely and crunchy and apparently the yams are best roasted, so we'll try them tonight. They look a little bit like Australian witchetty grubs.

                          

We took a different road home to see what is around the area and there are lots of little hobby farms with cattle, sheep and a few alpacas. A native bird that we see everywhere is the pukeko, a swamp hen. Long legs and a pretty blue colour.

                          

Taking the dog for a walk this morning, we came across these cattle. Not sure what breed they are but they have lovely horns. 

                          

We spent the afternoon reading, in front of the fire. A nice way to relax!