What a marvelous day we had! It turned out to be a bit windy for the ferry ride, so we changed our plans and went to Zealandia today.
Zealandia (www.visitzealandia.com) is a nature preserve right in Karori (just outside of Wellington) that has been specially fenced to keep out predators. Visit the website for more information about this fantastic preserve.
We saw many small birds flitting about the place as soon as we entered. We were heading towards the Takahe feeding area so that we would catch them being fed. There is one older pair of these flightless birds living in the sanctuary - they are no longer successfully breeding so have been moved here. They are the rarest birds in the world so we were really lucky to get a good look at these two. Much bigger than chickens, and with longer legs and large beaks they are very prehistoric looking - it is not hard to believe that birds are descended from dinosaurs when looking at these birds.
As we continued along the path we passed an area known to be home to Tuatara - ancient "lizards". We saw 3 sunning themselves on the cliffs and in the leaf litter. I don't have Shenna here to remind me of all the interesting things about these creatures, but they do grow (slowly) to a length of 60cm, and can live up to 60 years.
We saw many native birds as we continued along the route - Tui, Bellbird, North Island Robin, Hihi, and finally a Fantail.
Finally the bird that I'd been waiting to see - New Zealand's native parrot the Kaka. They are large (bigger than Grace), brown parrots with a reddish underbelly. We had just missed the main feeding, but there were still a few hanging around gorging on the liquid in the feeders. They were also fed some parrot pellets imported from America (I should have asked which brand!) in special feeders that were geared to open only when a 500+ gram bird sat on the perch. We stayed around and watched them until they disappeared into the forest.
I missed seeing the Kakariki which is a shame as they are cute little parrots. I think their feeding had been earlier in the day.
We walked and walked along the paths (some of which were marked too steep for mobility vehicles, and seriously some of the paths that weren't marked that way seemed too steep for them too!). We counted the steps up to a viewing platform - 98 + the two flights on the platform itself. We walked up to the entrance to the gold mine, but it wasn't open for viewing (Kirsten got her iPhone to light up and went partway into the tunnel so that we could see the Cave Weta, creepy big insects). We walked over a suspension bridge, and over the top of the dam.
The dam was built on a fault line (bad idea), so recently they decided to drain it for safety sake. It wouldn't be an ideal spot to be standing during an earthquake.
We also spent some time in the excellent exhibition where they had videos, stuffed creatures, etc.
By the time we got home, after our 4 1/2 hours of walking around, we were all beat. The girls mustered enough energy to go ride their ponies (!), and Kirsten got supper going and then headed out to go for a walk with the ponies and do the chores. Me? I stayed back and did a few little things and wrote this blog post (with my feet up!). We plan on going on the ferry ride tomorrow, but who knows how we will really feel as we've had day after day after day of activities. I don't think I've spent a whole day anywhere since I left home.
Happy Tails!
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Just Two Weeks Left
Time here is going pretty quickly - it seems hard to believe but there is only 2 weeks left - I leave here Wed Feb 13.
Today I slept in until almost 10am - I am getting totally exhausted by all this activity :-) It was another hot day, almost too hot to do much out in the sun so we decided to finish up some of the back-to-school shopping and head into Wellington to THE mall. There is another one somewhere outside of Wellington, but I guess it is a fair distance from Karori/Macara (as was the one we did go to). First we stopped in a little ballet shop to get some new slippers for Nissa.
The mall was much like a mall anywhere - some of the shops were the same (Footlocker), but there were other shops that were different. We popped into the Canterbury shop where they sell the "All Blacks" stuff - $120 for a golf shirt - Carm is obviously not getting one of those! I'd buy myself the "one ring" before I'd shell out that for a tshirt...
Nissa snagged a new pair of shoes at the mall and is very excited as they were a ladies size. Since she is just 10 2/3 years old it is a sign of her getting closer to being a grownup.
One thing that I've been noticing as we've been traveling about NZ - as soon as it is the tinyist bit warm out, hordes of people walk around barefoot! Even in the malls. It is very strange to see, and I keep expecting them to have hobbit feet!
We stopped by the Breaker Bay house and found a tiny little occupant in the garage. A tiny little gecko skittered its way across the floor, but did stop long enough for me to get a photo.
After a stop at the grocery store we finally made it back home just after 8. I haven't been having any trouble sleeping here and I'm sure you can imagine why!
Happy Tails!
Today I slept in until almost 10am - I am getting totally exhausted by all this activity :-) It was another hot day, almost too hot to do much out in the sun so we decided to finish up some of the back-to-school shopping and head into Wellington to THE mall. There is another one somewhere outside of Wellington, but I guess it is a fair distance from Karori/Macara (as was the one we did go to). First we stopped in a little ballet shop to get some new slippers for Nissa.
The mall was much like a mall anywhere - some of the shops were the same (Footlocker), but there were other shops that were different. We popped into the Canterbury shop where they sell the "All Blacks" stuff - $120 for a golf shirt - Carm is obviously not getting one of those! I'd buy myself the "one ring" before I'd shell out that for a tshirt...
Nissa snagged a new pair of shoes at the mall and is very excited as they were a ladies size. Since she is just 10 2/3 years old it is a sign of her getting closer to being a grownup.
One thing that I've been noticing as we've been traveling about NZ - as soon as it is the tinyist bit warm out, hordes of people walk around barefoot! Even in the malls. It is very strange to see, and I keep expecting them to have hobbit feet!
We stopped by the Breaker Bay house and found a tiny little occupant in the garage. A tiny little gecko skittered its way across the floor, but did stop long enough for me to get a photo.
After a stop at the grocery store we finally made it back home just after 8. I haven't been having any trouble sleeping here and I'm sure you can imagine why!
Happy Tails!
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Nissa's First Day Back at School
It was with a long face that Nissa stepped onto the bus on this glorious day. I told her that it bode well for the rest of her year that her school year started with such lovely weather, but I'm not really sure that she believed me!
After getting Nissa on the bus and getting some chores done, Kirsten, Shenna and I headed into Wellington to do a few things. Shenna needed some school supplies, and Kirsten had some things to do over at their house on Breaker Bay. It took us no time at all to do the shopping, and pick up a few meat pies (they are big in NZ). Around the corner (actually many, many corners) and we were at the house. We ate our pies on the deck overlooking the ocean and then Shenna and I left Kirsten to do her stuff, while we poked around the shoreline hunting for shells, and other interesting creatures.
It was a totally glorious day - the only thing that would have made it better would have been heavy duty water shoes to save our feet. I kept my sensitive toes in their shoes, but Shenna ooched and ouched her way around the bay, finding interesting things in the tide pools, and lovely shells to save. She found tiny crabs, little star fish, living pauo, interesting sea plants and sea urchins. We saw thousands of tiny periwinkles clinging to the rocks, and hundreds of other shelled creatures stuck to the rock. I shudder to think of how many tiny creatures that I inadvertently crushed :-(
At one point I got really excited as I thought I saw a penguin (the area we were in was known to have them sometimes). I took a whole pile of pictures, trying to get just a tiny bit closer. Then my smarty-pants niece came up and pointed out that it was a heron (all smunched up, but still a heron). Oh well, I got to live the dream for a minute or two!
Finally Kirsten was all done with her house stuff so we zoomed off as we were getting late to pick up Nissa from school. We got there just in the nick of time, and early enough for Nissa to give me a tour of her school. It is a small one room country school, with just 20 students, from (equivalent) Kindergarten to grade 8. It doesn't actually have just one room, but also has a lovely library with computers, classroom space, a swimming pool, playground, lovely grounds, and even a garden space.
We went back home for a while and then dug out our bathing suits (and picnic blanket!) and drove back to the school for a swim. Once we were back home from that I was Shenna's sous chef as she was making french onion soup (totally yum), but also had to do some horsey chores.
It was a busy day that is just ending now at 10:30pm. I'm exhausted and ready for a long sleep! These kids are wearing me out!
Happy Tails!
After getting Nissa on the bus and getting some chores done, Kirsten, Shenna and I headed into Wellington to do a few things. Shenna needed some school supplies, and Kirsten had some things to do over at their house on Breaker Bay. It took us no time at all to do the shopping, and pick up a few meat pies (they are big in NZ). Around the corner (actually many, many corners) and we were at the house. We ate our pies on the deck overlooking the ocean and then Shenna and I left Kirsten to do her stuff, while we poked around the shoreline hunting for shells, and other interesting creatures.
It was a totally glorious day - the only thing that would have made it better would have been heavy duty water shoes to save our feet. I kept my sensitive toes in their shoes, but Shenna ooched and ouched her way around the bay, finding interesting things in the tide pools, and lovely shells to save. She found tiny crabs, little star fish, living pauo, interesting sea plants and sea urchins. We saw thousands of tiny periwinkles clinging to the rocks, and hundreds of other shelled creatures stuck to the rock. I shudder to think of how many tiny creatures that I inadvertently crushed :-(
At one point I got really excited as I thought I saw a penguin (the area we were in was known to have them sometimes). I took a whole pile of pictures, trying to get just a tiny bit closer. Then my smarty-pants niece came up and pointed out that it was a heron (all smunched up, but still a heron). Oh well, I got to live the dream for a minute or two!
Finally Kirsten was all done with her house stuff so we zoomed off as we were getting late to pick up Nissa from school. We got there just in the nick of time, and early enough for Nissa to give me a tour of her school. It is a small one room country school, with just 20 students, from (equivalent) Kindergarten to grade 8. It doesn't actually have just one room, but also has a lovely library with computers, classroom space, a swimming pool, playground, lovely grounds, and even a garden space.
We went back home for a while and then dug out our bathing suits (and picnic blanket!) and drove back to the school for a swim. Once we were back home from that I was Shenna's sous chef as she was making french onion soup (totally yum), but also had to do some horsey chores.
It was a busy day that is just ending now at 10:30pm. I'm exhausted and ready for a long sleep! These kids are wearing me out!
Happy Tails!
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