Students at the Uni have a two-week mid-semester break – which means we get
to travel. We took an Air New Zealand
flight to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, on the North Island. Air New Zealand is great – they give you a
snack, even on a 60 minute flight – and a lolly (hard candy) right before you
land.
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Serving the lollies |
We saw a whole New World from our room at the YHA Wellington hostel. New World is one of several supermarkets in New Zealand.
Wellington was having their last weekend of Wellington On a
Plate food festival. A food truck
gathering was part of it; Cindy got an Indonesian dish and Paul a Greek
dish.
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Indonesian food truck |
We went to the beautiful Te Papa museum, the huge Sunday
produce market, the Garage Project brewery tasting room and saw Pickle King, a comedy
about love, death and preserves.
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Te Papa museum foyer |
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Te Papa's current major exhibit shows the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign in 1915;
it features seven very realistic 12-foot models of New Zealand soldiers, medics, and nurses |
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Enjoying a tasting flight at Garage Project |
We spent several hours hiking and finding birds at
Zealandia, a bird sanctuary at the edge of the city.
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Kereru (Wood pigeon) |
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Toutouwai (New Zealand robin) |
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Kakariki (Red-crowned parakeet) |
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Kaka (a New Zealand parrot) |
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New Zealand song thrush |
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Tieke (North Island saddleback) |
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Tui |
After 3 days in Wellington, we rented a car for the rest of
our north island holiday, driving first to Wanganui. We’d read about an underground tunnel to an
elevator; we weren’t sure what that involved so went to explore. The story is that when Wanganui was growing,
the Durie Hill tunnel was dug and an elevator installed so townspeople could easily get to
a new suburb up the hill. The tunnel and
wood elevator still exist, and you get a good view of the city from the top.
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Carvings at entrance to Durie Hill tunnel |
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Entrance tunnel to Durie Hill elevator - 205 meters long |
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Wood elevator and Raevyn (the operator) going 66 meters up through the hill |
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View from the top of Durie Hill |
On to New Plymouth, with a hike at Mt. Taranaki National Park
on the way.
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Mt. Taranaki and the locals |
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We had to turn around when a waterfall blocked the track |
Our room at New Plymouth had a great window view into the bush.
We walked on the
black sand beach and to the new Te Rewa Rewa pedestrian bridge on the Coastal Walkway near New Plymouth.
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Te Rewa Rewa pedestrian/cycle bridge |
We also went to the Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth and saw some of Len Lye’s
kinetic sculptures. Len Lye was a filmmaker and kinetic artist born in Christchurch who later lived in London and New York.
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Stainless steel facade of Len Lye Centre |
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One of Len Lye's kinetic sculptures |
We had a gray, cloudy, rainy drive on a forgotten highway to
our next night in National Park, a small town on the edge of Tongariro National Park. On the way we had to stop for cattle being
herded down the road by farmers and their dogs.
In the morning we
woke to sun with views of snow-covered mountains. We hiked on a trail to Taranaki Falls and got back
just as clouds and rain came in.
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Mt. Ruapehu in Tongariro National Park |
Anna would say, "Holy Toe Lee Doe !" What an amazing adventure you are having ! Cindy, you have such a knack for catching the "ordinary" in a photo which we all realize is not ordinary at all in our world. You both write the descriptions so that we feel as though you're here saying those words. Wow. Vicarious, indeed !
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