Matariki

Ash is really getting the hang of night photography – here’s me on the beach just down the road from our house on Friday night.

On Saturday morning we drove over to Kaitoke National Park, a bit down the road from Wellington. This was the location for Rivendell in the Lord of the Rings movies. There isn’t really anything left of the sets apart from this arch, which I posed under suavely. As always in New Zealand, the scenery was lovely.

We then headed back to the city for the Matariki (Maori new year) fireworks.

On Sunday morning our chest of drawers arrived, which was quite exciting because it meant that we finally have all the furniture we need – rented houses in New Zealand tend not to be furnished.

In the afternoon we went down to the City Gallery to see an exhibit called “This is New Zealand” about the way the country presents itself to the rest of the world. It was really interesting – we particularly enjoyed these old posters from the tourism board.

After the gallery we went for a wander around town so Ash could get some photos for her course – I got this shot of the business district from a little island in the harbour that you can walk over to.