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this week, and in particular this day seems to have gone by so quickly.  i had meetings from 9am to 3pm without any breaks which left me hungry, thirsty and a bit confused looking ! (no change there). 

then there was a fancy dress horse race round the office which was something that would never happen in the UK – some filing cabinets were even moved across the course at one point which proved a climbing challenge to those willing to ‘jump’ them.

it wasn’t as exciting as it sounds unfortunately, but an amusing diversion for a short while to watch (i didn’t enter)

kezia went to her friend emma’s this morning and that was all good.  meanwhile esther went to her friend Amy’s and they all went to … Brown’s bay again (third time for esther this week).  it’s nice there though and esther enjoys it, so that’s all good.

at some point in the day i had a meeting on the 35th floor of a building down by the water front which had a nice view

and here’s an 80s style jump suit dress thing on sale in a second hand shop.  whoever said new zealand was 20 years behind the rest of the world was wrong.  in some thing we’re nearer 30 years !

oh, and i bought a ticket for the Big Day Out next year which is exciting.

thursday was our wettest and windiest day so we went to the weta cave museum which were excellent.  Weta are the people behind various fantastic films so you should have a look on the website. 

i bought a revolutionary hat.    that’s the style of hat.  the concept of hats isn’t that revolutionary as people have been putting things on their heads since time began i suspect.

then we headed for a day of museuming at te papa, but couldn’t find a parking spot so we parked at our motel and walked there.  but on the way we stopped at at sweet mother’s kitchen which is a sort of creole / cajun junk shop of a food place.

then we spent the rest of the afternoon in te papa

which is very good.  there was more afternoon tea involved.  you know the score by now.

jane’s asked for some mini white boards to use in her teaching classes.  she loves white boards.

the girls went bowling and had fun.  and then this evening kezia went for a sleep over at a friends house but we got a call to pick her up a bit early as she had gone a bit sad.  so she’s just come back and we’ll take her back tomorrow.

esther and i watched harry pot pot and the prisoner of somewhere which was jolly good (kezia doesn’t like watching that kind of film so it was a good opportunity)

i spotted these triangular clouds going by outside the office window which was nice.  i think i’ve only got 3 weeks to make the most of them before we move down the hill to somewhere with less cloud viewing opportunities.

we’ve a horse race at work tomorrow late afternoon.  i’ll take my camera.

the weather forecast said sun in the morning then rain in the afternoon so we whizzed off to the cable car to take us up to the botanical garden

 

there was a nice view (would have been even better without the cloud) but we could see our motel

then we went for a walk round the bot gardens which was nice

highlights included this amazing lift !

and the tulips

and this poor statue

and the funny/genius tree names

we had lunch in a really nice cafe in the gardens when dared ourselves to go and see the stinky flower in the greenhouse

we’d read about it in the paper earlier in the week, but when we got there the smell had passed

it’s a shame as according to the report below it was ‘pure dead hedgehog, honestly’

 

then it was back down in to town.

jane went shopping whilst the girls and i went for a wander down to the water front

here’s a british telephone box next to the hotel where i stay sometimes when i’m visiting with work

   

after a while (or a whirl) at the playpark we went to te papa which is the national museum

then i think we went home for beans on toast again !

here’s a bit of tax news in case you are interested (skip this section if you’re not!)

GST, which is our version of VAT went up on the 1st October when we were in Wellington and is now 15% rather than the previous 12.5% to 15% so that was quite exciting.

personal tax rates have dropped though too which to be honest, is a bit more exciting than the GST increase.

if you are interested in reading what happened then it’s here

enough of that.  jane was in charge of cake at school today which she did admirably.  And she indicated to her boss that she would like to stay on for the extra 12 months they offered on monday.  so that’s all good.

and the girls were looked after by our friend wendy and their family today and had a great time at the beach where they ate hot chips and cold ice cream.

jane’s out at choir this evening.  toodles.

tuesday we headed over to the local boat which runs across the harbour outside wellington. 

we nearly didn’t bother because the weather was looking a bit dodgy, but we decided we would. 

and we were glad we did.  we stopped off at a nature reserve island thing

and the first thing we found when we went to the loo was this gecko in a sink !  (it’s a shame it wasn’t a skink in a sink, but hey ho)

we got great views back of wellington

 

and saw trees and plants with funny names

and a passing expert also showed us where a tuatara was hiding (we would never have spotted it ourselves)

we walked the perimeter of the island

here are some pictures for you

 

 

they had a funny little museum which had some old bits of giant weta

the island had been used for many things in the past including a place where people with suspected contagious diseases were housed.

it was also a quarantine place for animals and you could wander round the old buildings

and look at the old phone directory

 

we then caught the boat the rest of the way across the harbour to day’s bay and then walked to eastbourne.

  

we had a nice meal there, but otherwise we were fairly unimpressed.

 

the trip itself would have been worth it to see this piece of graffiti !

 

once we were back in wellington we went for a walk up Cuba Street which is a hippy bohemian place.  we had afternoon tea (of course!) then kezia and i went to explore the shops

 

then it was back to the motel for beans on toast and board games

i worked from home today and kept an eye on the girls for an hour or so this morning before i took them over to a friend’s house.

apparently they then went to the beach for a paddle and crab hunting.  then this afternoon they’ve just been mooching about whilst i’ve been working.

meanwhile jane had a good day at school i think and this evening we’ve had our homegroup.

i did see a glove and a kiwi fruit in the street as i drove the girls to their babysitters but it wasn’t safe to take any photos.  so these ones are from the archive !

 

monday looked like being the best weather of the day so we went to zealandia which is a natural reserve in walking distance of downtown wellington (though we drove)

 

we had a go on a little boat

and we saw some tuataras which pleased esther hugely

female tuataras are half the size of male tuataras.  and baby tuataras are born with three eyes (though the third one doesn’t really work and heals over).  you should keep that in mind if you are asked to buy a tuatara a hat (else risk getting one the wrong size or without a head eye hole for a child)

here’s a big male chap hiding up a bank

they blend in quite well with the background !

kezia was given a piece of flax made in to a rose

 

and there were lots of korus about (although they are called something else according to esther)

and at one point we put on hard hats and went looking for cave wetas (but didn’t see any giant wetas)

there were plenty of rare birds too.  i think this is a whitehead

 

and of course there were plenty of tuis doing their thing

 

here’s a saddleback

here’s a bellbird:

and here’s a kaka about to go feeding

  

we walked up another hill to a view point and had a little rest

this dam had been built way above wellington to provide its water supply. only recently they realised that building a huge water dam high above the capital city’s main fault line was a really bad idea so they’ve reduced the water level. 

 

    

here’s a new zealand robin

we got to walk over a nice rope bridge thing which didn’t wobbly too much so wasn’t really an issue

after zealandia we attempted to visit a windmill., but we only had 5 minutes to spare before the barrier would lock us in for the night so we decided not to risk it !

the grown ups in house were back at work today. 

jane had a good day and has been offered the (same) job for an extra 12 months if she wants as the person on maternity isn’t coming back until February 2012 at the earliest.  

We sat down with both the girls separately this evening to ask what they thought about it and whether jane should take it.  it was funny to hear their respective view points. 

meanwhile my day was really busy which made it fly by, so that was good.

the pictures above are from the square outside the town hall and aotearoa centre which has been under construction since we arrived.  it sort of cuts a corner off on the walk to my office so i’ll take advantage of it over the remaining 4 weeks i’m based there !

and as we approach the auckland super city elections people are looking at new ways to soup up their posters with extra adverts and flags.  all very exciting

the girls had a great day today too at Debbie’s house.  the highlight of the day was going to the flicks to watch a film about cats and dogs with a friend from church.  so they had big fun.

and then this evening there was much skyping, and warren came round to leach off our internet as his is broken.

 

and sad news from the UK that my grandfather died yesterday.  our thoughts and prayers are with my mum and rest of our extended family back in the UK

 

we were up at 9 on sunday to pick up our hire car.  which was a bit of a shame as it was new zealand summer time started and we lost an hour in bed

we drove in to town and parked up by the cathedral and happened to arrive around the time of its morning service.  the navy band were playing which made it very good fun (i’m not sure we could have got away with playing ‘what shall we do with the drunken sailor’ in our old church in the UK.  (or here for that matter)

after the service we went on a tour of the beehive which is the new zealand parliament building. 

it’s all free in New Zealand (unlike the UK one jane and i did a couple of year’s back)

these photos are from the outside

sometime between church and the tour we had morning tea in a bar which is famous for its spitting-image like caricatures of NZ parliamentarians

 

in the afternoon we drove up to my boss’ house who was having an open house afternoon tea for my colleagues

that was really nice

then we headed down town again to have lunch at a posh pizza restaurant