Wiltons Bush and Climbing some hills

In the last few weeks we began reacquainting ourselves with our home city.  It has been fun - revisiting places that we haven't been to in a long time. We have lots more to see. We've visited Wilton Bush - ranked Number 83 of 161 things to do in Wellington by Lonely Planet travellers.  We visited the little Visitors Centre (we've done it before but couldn't remember much of what we had read). Richard Seddon (NZ Prime Minister) put through in 1903 the Scenery Preservation Act which had a focus on preserving New Zealand's natural and historic heritage. This enabled the country to set aside large areas for national parks and also the creation of Wilton's Bush in Wellington - a rather large area of natural bush gifted to the city - which means us descendants can benefit from some very good thinking back then when many people were coming to the country and cutting down the trees for buildings.  We didn't take our cameras as it was raining but we wished we had...we got close up to a Kereru (native wood pigeon) for the first time and watched in awe as he kept one eye on us and stripped the leaves from the Kowhai tree to eat while we stood only inches away.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Pigeon
Then it was on to painting the little downstairs toilet (mint green which actually looks really nice) and then the lounge (back to vanilla which will also looks nice). Hint for those bored with decorating: bubble wrap makes good protection for the carpet when you don't have enough old sheets and while you 'roll' you can compose 'pop music'. I took a trip out the coast to see Annette and her Mum and couldn't resist taking more photos of my favourite island. Kapiti Island - an island just off the coast of where I grew up. It apparently was created by earthquakes 200 million years ago when the tip of a mountain range rose from the depths of the sea. Before man came along moa and kakapo lived happily together with plenty to eat. From the Kapiti Coast it looks like a bush clad island ranging fairly steeply to its ridge, from the seaward side it is an island of cliffs. We've spent a few happy afternoons their enjoying the bird life and salt air. Kapiti means "motu rongonui" or "famous island" and it was the habitat of the Maori until the 1830's when the European whalers came to shelter there and share in its natural wealth. 10 years later the land was cleared for farming and with all the animals that farming brings the bird life decreased and soon whaling was also on the decline. In the 1870's some very far thinking naturalists identified the island as a possible site for a bird sanctuary but it took nearly 30 years to give it a status for preserving our wildlife. Richard Henry was caretaker back in the early 1900's and after a few others the Department of Conservation took over the reigns in 1987. Lots of animals on the island weren't native and had to be eradicated before it became a safe haven for many of our protected wildlife such as the kakariki, robin, bellbird and saddleback, stitchbird, kokako, takahe, kereru, tomtit, kaka, whitehead, tui, fantail, long tailed cuckoo, brown teal, and saddleback, kiwi (including the little spotted kiwi that is extinct on the mainland) and weka. We must get a wildlife book of NZ to see what some of these look like. Over the last few months they have realised there is also a family of stoats - a real threat to many of the flightless birds and so another eradication programme has begun...

We've seen more friends and watched more rugby.  Wales vs France, Aussie vs South Africa (sitting on concrete at the fans zone), All Blacks vs Aussie and the semis (with Jim and Margot).  I've almost had enough (did I say that?). On the way to brunch at Sharon and Aaron's we went for a walk up Wadestown Hill.  The trees had grown even taller and so the views from the north end are quite limited.  Though, it was a good steep hill for testing fitness levels.

During the week we went to 42nd Street at the St James - continuing our love of going to live shows. We've been spoilt as although the show was very professional it lacked a good story line and compared to others we have seen was no where near the top of our list. Nicki has promised to let us know about the shows put on by the Porirua Little Theatre as they are always fun to go to and usually have a theme that captures the imagination. We've both signed contracts and our working life rebegins on 31st October.  No more sleep ins during the week or long walks during the day. But it is time to get back into the real world.  We climbed Mt Kau Kau on Thursday and were surprised how busy the walk was considering it is a working day.  Maybe more people than we thought do not work a full week.  It was great - sunny, windy, still, warm, cold - one of those days.  The gorse was pretty, but more so the native bushes with the little orange flower (we are yet to identify it by name - google just isn't doing it for us).  Here's some photos from another of my favourite places.

Our first few weeks in Wellington

Our first week in Wellington - sunny, warm and great to be back.  We've got lots of boxes to unpack but we're doing that slowly as we've decided to paint rooms before moving in to them.  A good idea in theory but it means we aren't quite settled yet and we keep thinking we having 'something' but just don't know where it is - like the hooks for the book shelves to sit on and the lids to the pots.  We spent some time with Mike and Rebecca and her parents before saying goodbye early one morning at the airport (4.00 am), watched a game of rugby with Sharon and Aaron and spent time with other family and friends.  It has been great.  The cherry tree is out in the garden and so is the kowhai - dinner place for the family of tuis - Harry has been out each morning taking photos.

And the NZ navy has come to visit Wellington (well almost 11 out of the 12 ships).  We've been down for a look as they are moored at the wharves and Harry went onto the "Wellington" but not the others as the queues were rather long (it was one of those days where the fan zone was full of lazy people, and the navy crew men were enjoying a picnic on their decks).  We also went to see the boats sail out of the harbour on one of those days when the southerly has hit town, the clouds were low and the sea spray is all around (another way of saying not much to see).

We also wandered along the 'black boot' outdoor exhibition and read some snippets and photos about some great rugby players over the decades (along with lots of French speaking people that day)...

• In 1984, 22 all Black captains had a photo taken.  The oldest was 92 - Beethoven Algar (his mother loved Beethoven's music).  In WWI he was the bodyguard for Lawrence of Arabia.

• Pat Vincent is the only captain ever to have stood on his head in a yoga position before a game (that's what they did back in the 1950's!!).
• Back in the 50's the teams had no subs, managers, specialist coaches, doctors, physios or water boys. Injuries - just meant keep on playing with fewer in the team.  
• Alex Wyllie back in 1975 told his team that there were only two excuses to miss training - death and docking lambs.
• Jazz Muller trimmed his hedge with a motor mower.
• 40 or so years ago touring teams were issued 2 jerseys for the season.  By the end of the season the team was known as the All Greys. 

The weather has turned a bit colder this week and we've wrapped up well.  We've had some people in to give us advice on ventilation and heating systems and decided on some extra heaters and a ventilation system.  So, we should be sorted just as summer begins!! We've also painted the bedroom (pink - a joint decision believe it or not - Barbie would like it), and the study where we vetoed the pink look and went for a neutral vanilla.  New curtains are a must in the bedroom - and perhaps the study now that I have washed them and they've shrunk a bit (not saying how much).  On Friday we went to the Maori art exhibition at Porirua.  Very impressive.  I think I was half expecting an artsy crafty thing but we found a display from a very talented group of artists - ceramics, weaving, glass ware, painting, jewellery, wood carvings.  We were really impressed with Roi Toia.  We didn't take photos but I grabbed one from the web which is similar except the carvings we saw were of the full bird about to take flight.  Rex Morton - owner of Boulcott Street Bistro and food creator for premier seats on Air New Zealand we were told by an American couple - did a cooking display where we learnt how to cook a hangi without cooking a hangi, and how to smoke fish on a barbeque (the latter we just might try - sawdust, tea are key ingredients - oh you need some fish!!). We then did our touristy thing and had a thermos of tea on a park bench at the harbour watching the seagulls and discussing our shopping list.

Auckland and trip to Wellington

It was a long flight but we did manage to snooze through some of the 14 hours so it wasn’t quite as tedious as I thought it might be.  Graham picked us up at the airport at 6.30 which we were exceedingly grateful for and after breakfast and a quick chat I went back to bed for a few hours.  The next couple of days were spent looking for a car and now Satchmo (Red Honda Jazz named after the great Louis Armstrong) will take us for many a trip along New Zealand country roads.  We didn’t see much of Auckland but spent the time catching up with my uncle, cousins and friends and watching a bit of rugby (Wales vs Samoa in a pub with support from our red dragons made by Rochelle).  Yes the world cup has started and flags are flying, so are accents and there are volumes of camper vans on the road.

We left Auckland the following Monday and travelled to Taupo – why not delay our holiday just a bit longer?  There was a little bubble of excitement as we drove down through the Matamata countryside (hobbit land) - lots of sheeps, cows, pigs, mountains and spring flowers.  We stopped at Waimangu thermal village which we hadn’t been to before – no mud pools but some fascinating steamy lakes, sulphur terraces with a boat ride on Lake Rotomohanu thrown in.  This was the crater lake of Mount Tarawera before it erupted in the 1800's.  We saw some baby geysers and gazed at the spot where they think they have located the pink and white terraces under about 60 feet of water.  This is where Hinimihi (the little meeting house in Clandon Park near London) was nearly covered with ash but she stood her ground and sheltered 100 people or so during the eruption.

We arrived in Taupo (via the new deviation) rather chilled from the afternoon of walking through native bush to the Lake but it was o.k. Harry had promised me a 5 star hotel with a spa for our last night before we descended on Wellington and all the house shifting work started.  Yeah right!!  1 star hotel with character – first built in 1869 by Joseph Joshua who must have been watching westerns on tv even back then to have created the tavern, pool room and sleeping quarters – all it needed was a horse and cart outside and a couple of people in cowboy hats playing with pistols.  It didn’t get any better as we drove round the back to our room (was this a suitable environment for our new Jazz?) which was a chalet near a tumbled down building.  I mean this place has history -  the spa was built on the site for the armed constabulary during the Maori wars.  In 1869 a lean too structure was built over the steaming river and then  a wooden bath was also built so that all could enjoy the warm waters (including us but we spent most of the time in the pool psychologically preparing for the run back to the chalet). Joseph Joshua organised a meeting house to be carved in memory Chief Te Tama Mutu's wife.  It is now protected and the only privately owned meeting house in NZ - legally it can never be removed from NZ (looked great inside but needs a bit of maintenance on the outside).  The hotel is clean and provides all the essentials.  We read the following instructions about heating...‘Open the window at the back of the bathroom to let the heat in’.  Might sound silly but we did give it a go as there is a thermal stream close by which heats the pipe behind the building and also the pool we had a dip in.  In theory o.k. in practice not so 'hot' leaving the window open led to cold ankles while sitting on the loo.  And if we wanted breakfast (and it is highly unlikely we will given the look of the dining room) we can order an English one – bacon, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms, eggs and toast, or an American one (just add hashbrowns, baked beans, eggs and toast to the bacon), or a Kiwi breakfast – all of the above . After sampling a good Italian dinner down town we believe there might be a better breakfast place and it will probably have free wifi (and some views of the lake).
PS we thought this was our room for the night but it wasn't we were in a group of about 6 units slightly newer but with the same look and no pongas.

On the way down to Wellington we drove through the Desert Road and stopped to throw a few snow balls.  It was a bit cloudy and so we couldn't see much of the mountains which was a shame as there were a number of rugby fans doing the same thing as us. We also had a quick look at the Makohine Viaduct which is on the route for the main railway line between Wellington and Auckland.

We stopped for lunch at Bulls.  The town is apparently named after James Bull who was a carpenter from Chelsea in London who arrived in his mid twenties in Wellington in 1857. His claim to fame was he built a chair for the Parliamentary Speaker. He set up a timber mill along the Rangitikei River and a general store in 1859 in High Street (now the home to the local RSA).  Given his building experience it isn't surprising he then moved on to constructing the courthouse and a few hotels.  Bulls has made a real marketing thing about its name - quite clever really.  The town is "live-a-bull and unforget-a-bull" and its where the people are "hospit-a-bull and befriend-a-bull".  By going to school you can become "knowledge-a-bull and educate-a-bull" and if you are younger daycare is "love-a-bull an care-a-bull". The museum is "memor-a-bull and visit-a-bull" and the Information Centre is very "inform-a-bull".  There's lots of places to eat that are "eat-a-bull" but McDonalds is also "McValue-a-bull" and the drive thru is "drive thru-a-bull".  If it is a paper or some milk you want you can go to the local diary which is "avail-a-bull". Antiques are "afford-a-bull and collect-a-bull" and the local fire brigade is "Extinguish-a-bull" and the local police is "const-a-bull"...you get the picture.
And then onto Wellington