Zealandia

We went to visit the Zealandia ecosanctuary a couple of weekends ago. As you you might know, New Zealand has no native predators (hence why there are lots of flightless birds, like the kiwi, because they didn’t need to get away from any threats). However, the Maori brought dogs and pigs with them to New Zealand, and Europeans brought rats, rabbits, possums, stoats and weasels, all of which unbalance the ecosystem. Zealandia has a fence that no predators can get through, creating an untouched piece of native wilderness. I was a bit sceptical about how much wildlife we would see in such a large area, but it was great! We saw lots of native birds up really close, such as saddlebacks, tuis, kakas, takahe, hihi, pateke, and a colony of pied shags.

Some assorted highlights:

I’ve been trying new crafts recently – I made a cross stitch and went to a painting class.

I saw this guy walking a ridiculous amount of dogs through the town centre.

I bought myself a hybrid bike and have been on a couple of rides so far. Here’s a nice view of the coast near our house.

Much beer was drunk

This is going to be a very beer-themed post. Wellington has a great beer scene, with lots of breweries based here in town. We’ve been doing the Wellington beer passport recently; you get a stamp for every bar you visit and earn a free t-shirt when you get 8 stamps.

It’s the “Wellington on a plate” food festival at the moment, for which restaurants across town create special one-off dishes. We went to the Sprig and Fern pub to try their beer and pie tasting board – you got five different miniature pies, with a beer to match each one.

We also checked out a couple of burgers that had been made for the festival. This was a bacon cheeseburger with fanta barbeque sauce and sprinkles on the bun.

For my birthday, Ash got me a session at the Occasional Brewer. This is a brewery where you make your own beer – you end up with 80 pints to take home. We need to do a couple of tasting sessions to decide what type of beer I want to make.

Finally, the main library in wellington is just opposite my office. When I went to check out my books, I discovered that you can set the checkout machines to speak like a pirate, which I found childishly satisfying.

My first rugby match

On the 20th of July I went to see my first ever rugby match – a lot of New Zealanders were entertainingly shocked when I explained I hadn’t been to one before. We saw the Wellington Hurricanes play the Waikato Chiefs (the team that Ash supports). The chiefs lost by one point so Ash wasn’t very happy.

At half time some guys in giant inflatable balls ran at each other.

On a random note, there was a really nice sunrise while I was waiting for the bus to work one day. 

The next Friday it was Ash’s friend Shelley’s birthday, and we went out for a Malaysian meal. Then it was my birthday the next day, so we went touristy and rode the cable car.

They had this light show deal in the tunnel.

We wondered around the botanical gardens at the top of the cable car track. Then we checked out the Korean Culture festival at the Wellington concert hall. The highlight was this performance, which was a sort of mashup between traditional music and and break dancers.

The New Zealand film festival is on at the moment – we checked out a Danish film called “the guilty”, about a police dispatcher who receives a call from an abducted woman. It was set entirely in the call centre, so the story unfolded just through the telephone calls; it was a really interesting concept. We’ve also booked in to see documentaries about medieval combat reenactors in New Zealand and guide dogs in training.

The next day, we went to a gin tasting session in town. We got two gin and tonics and a cheese and meat platter for $15 each (about £7 – eating out is definitely cheaper here, but making food at home is maybe a bit more expensive).

I flew up to Auckland for work on Monday, and got this shot of the sunrise from the plane.

I went for dinner in the marina with some colleagues that night and got the standard tourist shot of the skytower.

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.

Street art

Quite a lot has happened since the last time I wrote a post. We have found a house in Island Bay, which is about 3 miles out of the centre of town. It’s a 15-minute drive from here to my office, or a 35 minute cycle. While we were looking to be within easy walking distance of the centre, this is a nice enough place while we get ourselves settled in.

I’ve started work on the 9^th floor of the majestic centre, the tallest building in the city (this isn’t as exciting as it would be in London, as good views are so easy to access in Wellington). It’s pretty nice working in the centre though, because it is so compact that most things (places to eat, the waterfront, parks, the library, shops) are within a 5-minute walk.

We’ve been busy settling in to our new house, so we haven’t done many exciting things over the last couple of weekends. However, there is loads of good street art in Wellington, which we’ve been taking pictures of along the way.

I found this one where everyone looks a bit stoned quite entertaining.

Also, Ash went back to her parents’ house recently to pick up some bits for our house and got this cool shot of the stars.

Hopefully now that we have got ourselves established in Wellington we will have some more exciting things to tell you about next time.

Moving to Wellington

Ash is taking a photography course at the moment, for which the students have to complete an assignment each week (such as landscape or architecture photos). This has been a good way to get out and see places that we might not otherwise. For one of her landscape assignments, we went to McLaren Falls Park, in the hills outside Tauranga.

We also checked out the beach by Mount Maunganui.

We went to see Ash’s brother play football one weekend, in slightly nicer conditions than you would get for a winter-time football match in the UK.

As my I start work in Wellington on the 27^th, we drove down on the 19^th to give ourselves a bit of time to look for apartments. We are staying with Ash’s friend who has a house in Khandallah, a very hilly area of town. Here’s Pearl, the resident cat, looking unimpressed.

We went for a little wander on the waterfront to get some shots for Ash's course. There are some nice bits of public art in Wellington, including this series of installations with excerpts of writing about the city.

I also thought these beach huts were quite picturesque.

And ash got this cool view of the city at night from the same area.

In fact, because Wellington is so hilly, pretty much wherever you go you’ll get a good view.

Finally, we went over to the other side of the bay from the city for lunch. We saw these mosaics of New Zealand birds in a town called Eastbourne - I don’t think we do enough of this kind of street art in the UK.