Te Papa Museum

It was still raining when we got back to Wellington so we decided to spent some time discovering the Te Papa Museum. Known as the ' Museum on New Zealand', it hosts an inspiring and interactive look at NZ's history and culture. The design and location of the building, directly on the waterfront, makes it hard to walk past. Inside we found a wide range or interactive exhibits, art, Maori treasures, natural history and environment exhibits.

Wow they even have twenty-one etchings by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) on display. The works, featuring religious subjects, scenes of daily Amsterdam life and portraits, very interesting!

We spent three hours soaking it all up and finished of the evening with a lovely meal of sushi with Lynne at a local Japanese restaurant and although I was totally full, I had to try out some boisen berry chocolate gelate. Hey I'm on holidays. Oink.

Tararua Forest Park

Even though it was raining we were not about to waste a day sitting around getting on each others nerves. We decided to dress appropriately and go trekking in the Tararua Forest Park. The park provides an outstanding variety of tramping, hunting and walking opportunities in a wild, natural landscape only 1.5 hours from Wellington.

Open river terraces and regenerating bush surrounding the forks reflect the farming and sawmilling history. We decided a short trek to the Seed and O'Brien's Sawmill was the order of the day, 40 minutes return, not bad. Great views, beautiful river flowing below steep cliffs, dense rain forest vegetation, very impressive.

Our 40 minute return hike turn into a 3 hour return hike, we kept looking for the sawmill, which we had passed and taken pictures of 20 minutes into our trek. Duh.

At one point Francois (who has no sense of smell at all) noticed a sweet yet disgusting odour in the air (and it did not come from either of us). I recognized the smell as being that which emanates from something that has died. Why am I telling this story..not sure. What had died was in fact a brush tailed possum, this pesky pest, looks like a giant rat and is causing serious harm to native species of plants and birds. He may look cute but yuck. This rodent wont be missed!

So we had a wonderful day...many more to come...

Apple picking...In March

In a previous post Francois mentioned driving by a You Pick apple orchard. Now I am not particularly partial to the apple, however, if you pick one right of the tree that is a totally different story! I am here to tell you that here is nothing sweeter than tasting a fresh apple on a crisp fall day. I got my way and we went picking apples and pears, they had beans, beet root, every kind of pepper you could imagine, eggplant (yuck), you name it. Pretty cool place.

75 cents a kg...cheap!

Yum...

Nga Manu Nature Reserve

We woke up early on Sunday morning and the rain was coming down like crazy, so no time was to be spent at the beach! Oh well, we were both a little red from the previous day. I guess I should use a 30 instead of an 8.

We stopped by the tourist information centre to see if they might have some suggestions as to what to do on a rainy day by the sea. The nice older lady suggested we could attend a church service, or maybe to church. She gave us some great directions, maybe we both looked like pagans or heathens.

We decided not to go with the church tour and thought a trek through the nature reserve would be pretty cool. Nga Manu Nature Reserve is 35 acres of coastal lowland swamp forest an provides visitors like us the change to see native plants, Tuatara, birds, lizards and all kinds of other wild beasts. We spent a few hours walking around spotting interesting birds and of course feeding the ducks (which I love to do, Francois not so much). Actually Francois has a fear of birds, looking at his face when a bird got too close was reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.

Two birds that I really enjoyed seeing were the Fantail and the Tui. The Tui is an extremely intelligent, and resemble parrots in their ability to mimic human speech. They are known for their noisy, unusual call that combines bird like notes, cracks, growns, moans, you name it. I wondered if the bird wanted a smoke after listening to him.

Fun......

Wineries

One hour outside of Wellington is the wine region, sorry I dont have all of the names of the places we have visited with me as I am in the car and typing while using someone's internet connection.

We visited 5 different wineries and sampled their fair, delicious white wines. We finished off our day with some cheese and beef jerky. Hey I love beef jerky. It was truly a glorious sunny day, beautiful landscapes and views. It is early fall here in New Zealand so I guess the rain can be expected.

It is a rainy day today, actually it is coming down like cats and dogs out here. I think we might have to spend the day reading. Francois is well into Janita's book and I know from the outbursts of laughter that he is enjoying it.

You will notice that my post are not in any real order.

Waikanae

I’m writing this sitting on a comfy sofa in Rose’s beach house on the deserted Tasman sea coast. We’re in Waikanae, 15 minutes from Wellington’s seaside playground: Paraparaumu. It’s funny how the human brain works. Folks in New Zealand are preparing for winter and even on a sunny day with the temperature rising above 25 degrees Celsius, the beaches are empty and beach houses all but abandoned for the season. Works for me, I don’t mind having the place to myself. Plus, the delicious cafés are empty.

Ed and I spent our day tanning, reading, testing the water and taking pictures. We cooked a pleasant supper before returning to the beach for more sun. The gentle breeze gradually brought in more clouds and we ended our day admiring a sunset bringing darkness over the coast and Kapiti island. Once back at the bach (that’s what Kiwis call their summer homes), a really loud siren disturbed the otherwise quiet night. Ed and I had no idea whether we should run to the closest bomb shelter or laugh the whole thing off. The siren was reminiscent of the alarm that came too late at Pearl Harbour. I was wearing my brown pants so I was OK but yikes. We ran outside on the street only to be greeted by the sound of people chilling in their living rooms or enjoying a glass of Sauvignon Blanc on their deck. So, we looked at each other knowing we pretty much looked like idiots in our PJs, beaming a flashlight about like over-excited treasure hunters in a Maya temple.

So tomorrow, we’re off to hike in the Tararua Forest Park. We drove past an apple orchard yesterday: I bet Ed will make us stop there as he only ever eats apple when they are fresh off a tree, something to do about Canada’s amazing refrigeration power and the fact that we’re always eating last year’s apple back home.

Our friend Lynne

We are so fortunate to have met Lynne 6 years ago at a conference. She has a beautiful home in downtown Wellington where we have spent our first two days. Walking distance to all of the major sights in town and still extremely quiet. She is an amazing person and we all have so much fun together. We spent the evening sipping NZ wine and had a bbq on the back deck. Life is good.

It's a small world after all

We met up with a friend from Montreal in Wellington, Rob. He is on vacation travelling around NZ and Vanuatu. Believe it or not he was spending just a few hours in Wellington and we managed to have lunch and go for a walk through the botanical gardens. I love stories like this, meeting up with people in odd places. Karma I guess.

LAX - 12 Hours Later

After four connections, two screaming babies, three custom searches and lots of turbulence I have finally arrived in Los Angeles, what would normally take four hours took 12!

Wow this airport is ever so slightly bigger than Regina International Airport. Seven terminals, I had to take a bus that took 25 minutes to arrive at terminal two where I met up with Francois.

This leg will take 12 hours and it will be much more pleasant as we managed to SNEEK into the business class lounge! Can you say WOOHOO. Free drinks, free food, free snacks and if I have the urge, I could hop into the shower. Nice. 

While Francois flew Air Canada to LAX, I was on United most of the way. Our stories couldn't be any more different. One of us got to watch Juno on his own personal TV while the other was entertained by the flight crew making shadow puppets. Air Canada rules. (well at least over United Airlines)

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

Ok, so I have three more sleeps to go before I catch my flight on Monday morning at 6:00am. Francois leaves a little later than me and we will be meeting up in Los Angeles (if everything goes well which I am sure it will...right???) We've been planning this trip for almost one year now and it's hard to believe that we are finally on our way. Booked the last of our accommodations today and all we have left to do is pack. Not that packing is a small task, especially for me. I am one of "those people" who bring way too much stuff and end up wearing the same pair of pants for 2 weeks. Better safe than sorry I say.

I thought that I would post some stories from time to time to share with my friends (stole the idea from Megan).

So check back from time-to-time!