Special Wellington Day Tour

Airbnb guest Thomas was staying for a few nights before going the south island and asked if I'd be his guide for the day around Wellington. The night before we went to the Meridian Magic free concert in the botanic gardens and saw this splendid example of Steampunk.

 

The next day was the special Wellington day tour, first to Mirarmar Weta cave where the shop is with the creatures and things from the films the Mirarmar studios produce. Outside were these chaps:

 

He was heading out to the shops with his wee bag



After Weta Cave we went to The Roxy - the art deco cinema in Mirarmar, it's had more movie characters like this Stomtrooper:

Armed and practical.

 

There's also a statue of Gandalf outside.

Looking good.

 

Next we went to the Chocolate Fish café for lunch and for some lovely plum smoothies, then a short walk to the Massey Memorial at the end of the Mirirmar Peninsular.

After Mirarmar it's was up Mt Victoria for the lookout and then into town for a walk along Oriental and to Te Papa so Thomas could go inside the Earthquake House.

The tour also included crawling inside a whales heart, because its a special tour.

Thomas and Whale heart which you can crawl inside (found in the kids section)

 

In addition to the voyage inside a whale heart, the tour also included two dinosaurs talking/ possibly arguing but at least they didn't forget their bag.

 

There was just enough time to show Thomas the Embassy cinema that had the film premieres and the Black Sparrow bar underneath for its lovely décor, then it was back to Island Bay for a bbq up on the deck.

 

Dolf, Ashley, TJ and Thomas enjoying themselves.

 

For Lord of the Rings locations, DOC has this useful list.

Hawkes Bay again back to Wellington

Eskdale Campground

I stopped at Rotorua for fuel, 161.9c per litre, cheapest yet. I was last at Eskdale campsite 7 years ago, it's a lovely open campsite as you can see here. The next day I visited Esk Valley vinyard and the lady was very nice, I was also here 7 years ago, in Napier I visited Port Napier and had lunch at a lovely twee Kath Kidston style shop/ café called Port O Call, the owner called everyone my dear and darling and asked if they wanted tea or coffee, they had Devonshire Tea how about that, so I had a Devonshire Tea, everything had flowers on it, even my Devonshire Tea. I thought it was as close to my imaginary 'Mother Dears Tea Shop' as something could be.

Port O Call

Now with a bit more time, I had a walk up The Bluff Hill lookout which is a very nice walk to get there and watched the container ship being loaded and unloaded.

 

Back in town the pier looked a bit different from last time:

 

Would you look at that!

 

For lunch I went to Mission Bay vineyard which looks proper posh, it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner but they a reasonable snack menu, so I got fries and steamed veg which were very nice. That evening I stayed at Clive campground in Clive, a nice long haired showed me to my tent spot on his bike, it's probably the friendliest campsite ever, I was visited by one of the long term residents cat called Mischief, who wanted to play.

 

Mischief playing with the tarp tie that goes around my tent. Beautiful animal but deadly I'm told.

 

Next day I decided to go back to Wellington, I had coffee at Unisons Vineyard which looked very Tuscan, it was really lovely, I had a good chat with the owner who is very easy to talk to and told me about her career change from H.R in corporate London to running a vineyard in Hawkes Bay. From there I went to Havelock North to Craggy Ranges Vineyard and did some tasting and collected a bottle and then had a walk up Te Mata peak, and realised I had been here 7 years ago too. It's a splendid hill, reminds me of the Lake District in the UK as it's fairly open and makes a change from green tunnel walks which is most of NZ. I had a picnic lunch of cheese and crackers and plums on a fence style looking out towards the peak, I could also see the vineyard I had just been to on the plain below.

 

Te Mata Peak, Craggy Ranges

I really like Hawkes Bay. I think it's actually my favourite area in New Zealand. Cuthbert carried me to Wellington, back to my lovely Island Bay sanctuary.

Oubliettes and hidden mazes on the Karangeheke Gorge

Today was the day to say goodbye to the animals which I have become fond off. I took Jake for one last jog in the morning and played fetch with Shilo, I'm fond of them all but especially the cats, I'll miss them and the lovely house.
After tidying the house and packing with as much cat cuddling as possible I booked a last minute airbnb in Paeroa because its very near to Karangeheke Gorge.

Lovely Airbnb

How cool is this place for $40! And I have my own bathroom!

So off I went to the gorge, I got the last parking spot (clever Cuthbert) and straight away got onto the wrong walk, none of the signs made any sense as there was no map to give anything context. So I ended up walking through a massive 1.9km dark tunnel first and then ended back where I started. I tried again and this time ignored all the signs and turned the only other direction available and got onto the path I was looking for.

Feels like an Aztec ruin

What a cool place, like some sort of Indiana Jones landscape.

And then I found this place, which is not on the map:

So spooky

 

The walls were really high on both sides, at places along the length were thin oubliettes that disappeared into darkness... I carried on past the swimming hole through another tunnel and took Dubbo track over the hill back to make a loop walk instead of going back the same way. The sign said 2 hours to get back but I ran all the way in my sandals and managed it in 1 hour, the first half is muddy and rooty and goes up a lot, then you get to this point:

 

 

And after this point its all downhill on a much more even track, I passed lots more old mine oubliettes, cold air comes out of them, the first thing that came into my head was the film I am Legend and its horrific zombies that hide in dark cold places, I spooked myself out and carried on running which is how I managed the track in half the time. Near the end a tiny hedgehog was walking across the track, he wasn't afraid of the monsters in the oubliettes, so I stopped and shared my last Nature Crunch bar with him.

After a lot more walking than I had planned to do, I was pretty pooped and glad to have a nice place to go back to, with no oubliettes in.

Cornwall Park is very nice.

Cornwall Park, it's got a nice name, a comforting name. Yes a Devonshire tea please, I think I'll have the fruit scones with English Breakfast, clotted cream? Excellent.

 

But first I think I'll have a nice walk up to that big obelisk up there on the hill, there must be a nice relaxing viewing point from up there...

 

Trull la la la la...

 

!

Some people didn't get out of their cars, there was actually a queue of cars waiting to not see the view.



 

Oh dear, oh deary me. But the rest of the park was very nice indeed, but there's no Devonshire Teas, it's New Zealand, they don't know what a cream tea is!

 

I stopped for a nice lunch in Ellerslie and went back to the house to endure some more affection from the cute ones. Just look at them:

Witness our cuteness

And so ends my last full day looking after the lovely animals and enjoying this beautiful house I have had the privilege to house sit.

Cliff walk and Karekare near Phia

Still raining today but went out for a walk at Karekare beach near Phia. There are a number of loop walks there, there are lots of forest walks in NZ so I thought it would be nice to do a cliff walk.

At Karekare main carpark there is no sign for the walk, there is a map:

 To get the cliff walk you have to go out of the car park and wander about looking lost for a bit and there is a road with a name but no signs to any walk, but its the only obvious road so up there you go and at the top is a sign to a walk except it's called something else but after that there is a sign for the track. The walk go up atop the cliffs and offers plenty of views to the rugged bays below, its a fun walk. I took the Ahu Ahu track back which is a very easy consistent gradient back to the top of the road, you could get a wheel chair down it except in a few place where trees had fallen across the path, you'd probably have to tip the wheel passenger out here and carry them across.



When I got back the dogs were in the front garden again and had made some deposits on the front lawn, Jake had been sitting on my sandals which now smell of dog. Inside Molly had been sitting on my bed, dang it! Is this a conspiracy?!
I put the dogs back in the back garden and reinforced the metal sheet they push out the way in the gap in the fence by wedging a large moving trolley that was in the back garden against it. I fed the cats and then Molly but made her wait a bit and then Jake and Shilo and made them wait much longer than usual before allowing them to eat. In the front garden I then noticed a massive amount of earth works had happened by the path. Naughty things!
Anyway, there is more Kapiti ice cream in the freezer, and Burt Munro to cheer on.

Happy New Year!

 

30.7! I'm looking forward to that, 25 mm/h + is classed as torrential. Let's see what happens....

 

Actual weather

New year but same precision of weather forecasting.  I read my book on the outside under the porch with the rain coming down and a cat under my chair, later I took Jake for a jog and a lady going for walk admired him and asked how old he was (I have no idea how old he is), we got rained on a bit but that was quite nice. Back at the house I did some baking and enjoyed a very cheesy 80's film and some freshly baked banana bread. It's almost tradition to watch 'The World's Fastest Indian' around this time of the year, so I may put that on later.

 

Father time welcomes in the New Year. Little Nemo in Slumberland

Here's a nice extract from Little Nemo 1906 whereby Father Time visits Nemo at midnight and invites him to come along but he's in a hurry because he has to get round the whole world to bring in the new year, but first they stopped off at Father Time's home to see how the years are made. If Nemo touched a year he became the age he would be in that year, Father Time had to go to work for a bit and left Nemo at his house, Nemo touched the year 1999 and became very old and cried out for Father Time to save him, his cry was weak due to his old age but his mother heard him and he woke up from Slumberland!

 

And that is how the new year is made.

 



Another relaxed day

Last day of 2015! Well, still no hover boards or flying cars.
Today I did almost nothing, it was wonderful.

Highlights from today include:









 

A nice relaxed day reading, enjoying the sun, playing with the dogs and drinking cider and eating Boysenberry Kapiti ice cream which tasted just like Raspberry Ripple, I loved Raspberry Ripple.

In the evening after Jake and Shilo were back in their kennel, I brought the cats inside in case they got spooked by firework noises, at around 10pm there were some fireworks and the cats didn't stir at all, Molly was a bit twitchy but she's a Chihuahua so she's always twitchy. I was expecting some more at midnight but was feeling sleepy so I thought I'll just lay down on the carpet for a bit with the cats and wait for the midnight fireworks, well I fell asleep and woke up at 12.30! 

Happy New Year!