Author: dave

i’ve finished adding photos to our wellington holiday posts, and added the missing Tuesday!

mostly a day of doing today.

jane walked pearl then we hung some pictures – literally blood, sweat and (nearly) tears.  i’m so bad at DIY

we also met with the landscape lady to sort out the final bit of the quote which hopefully we’ll get this weekend and we can get things underway

this afternoon i whizzed over to the zoo for 45 minutes to take advantage of the last few days of my season ticket

and this evening we played cluedo which jane won

all the animals at the zoo looked a bit grumpy i thought.  probably the weather

i had work which is very busy

jane shopped and took kez to dentist and pearl for a walk

esther met up with a friend.  kez met up with a friend and watched ghostbusters

here’s a record-breaking superyacht which is in NZ for repairs (read more here)

No photos today because it’s Jane writing. Poor Dave had to go back to work. I collected Pearl and then took the girls to optician’s appointments. The girls both saw friends in the morning.
Byeeee

made it home.  expect proper updates and recaps over the next few days!

UPDATED WITH PICTURES:

we all went out for breakfast at our favourite cafe then went back and checked out of the hotel

the girls hired a bikey thing and did sitting around using the wifi in te papa which was our rendezvous point.  jane did some shopping and i did some wandering round wellington

after lunch in a food court we went our separate ways again. 

the girls went shopping and jane and i went to the a world war one museum which was excellent

we all met up again at te papa, then went back to the hotel to pick up our cases then got a taxi to the airport

a massive storm was blowing across the country so i half expected our flight to be cancelled but it wasn’t and in the end it was a fine flight except some bumps just after take off in windy wellington

there ends our wellington trip.  we had amazing, though chilly weather for most of it and got a taste of the notorious wet/windy stuff too!

here are pictures from the WW1 exhibition.  jane’s looking at colourised pictures

the museum was put together by Peter Jackson of Hobbit fame who is an avid collector of WW1 things

tuesday was a day where we all went off and different things

jane met up with her friend peggy then did some clothes shopping with the girls

the girls spent the whole day shopping

i got the train to Petone which is an industrial town where all the industries shut down

so i wandered down the famous jackson street to observe the cafe culture (seemingly absent, but some nice buildings)

petone has a natural mineral water fountain where people bring massive flagons to fill with the unfiltered water.  it was always busy every time i went by it

then i popped down to the waterfront to visit the settlers museum

turns out Unilever had a production plant in Petone which closed at the end of last year.  i watched a video with the people who worked there in the last days talking about how their grandparents worked there and their own parents etc

there was also a famous slaughterhouse

and of course the first social housing project which i then visited

i then spent an hour walking to Lower Hutt

i had a look round the museum and listened to the hum of this pile of speakers

i went to the information centre but the lady behind the desk said “there isn’t anything interesting to see here” while avoiding eye contact!

so after a walk up and down the very dilapidated high street i got the bus back to Wellington

on the way i walked by parliament and saw this famous pedestrian crossing which has a picture of Kate Sheppard

we all met up back in the hotel then caught an uber across town to eat in a steak house

Jane and i went to our usual place for breakfast then walked over to the  wooden church for  a look

We then joined the first tour of the Parliament Buildings then went back to the hotel to meet up with esther and kezia who had by then been out for breakfast and looked round the shops

This afternoon we went to the zoo which was excellent then out for dinner at the Belgian Beer Cafe near our hotel.

girls hiding in the room

watch a video of the lion here with your sound up loud

Breakfast in our new regular cafe then over to the train station to get the train to porirua.

It was twenty five minutes walk from the station to the  high ropes course but we did it in fifteen to get there in time for our allotted start time of eleven am.

Turns out the start time was only a guide so we needn’t have rushed! The girls spent three hours on the ropes while Jane and i sat being very cold indeed in the cold shadowy forest.

After that we walked back in to town for a warm up coffee and then an excellent round of crazy golf.

Then we walked back to the train station and headed back to the hotel for a power nap before going out to wagamama for dinner.

On Saturday a bird did a little poo on kezia’s head.  On Sunday another bird pooed on kezia’s head.   This time if was massive.   We’re going to the zoo on Monday and kezia is worried

UPDATE WITH PICTURES:

spot the girls way up in the trees on these next three photos

“quotes” and “*”

 

Up at four am,  flight at seven am, wellington at eight.

Rest of day walking for miles round (and up and down) wellington with our friend briana. The walk involved the botanical gardens, the waterfront and a craft market in an underground car park

After checking in to the hotel and a quick power nap we spent a couple of hours in te papa.  On the way back we had dinner at One Red Dog for esther birthday.

UPDATE WITH PICTURES:

breakfast at the airport

i had an aisle seat so i prepared the belt and arm rest for my future row companions.  but they never turned up so i had the row to myself!  so i shuffled over and jane joined me

taxi to the hotel to drop our bags off then a wander over to the wooden church which was closed for a private function then by the government buildings to meet Briana

 

kezia’s choir sung somewhere round here last year

after we met with briana we walked over to the botanical gardens for lunch (here was the first bird poo incident)

we walked up to the top of the cable car which was unfortunately closed for maintenance

but we did find some sculptures and some arts

then we walked back in to town

passing an underground market

and along the waterfront to the train station to wave of briana

we checked in to our teeny hotel room

then walked back along the waterfront (avoiding the pokemon go-ers) to get to te papa

jane and i went round the gallipoli exhition where the statues are 2.4 bigger than life and very realistic

in the evening we popped across the road from our hotel for esther’s birthday dinner

not sure of the level of connectivity we’ll have in wellington so don’t panic if we don’t update the family blog until thursday!