Trip around the bays

On the 24th of November Aunty Christine and Robert decided that they'd show me around the different bays and beaches surrounding Wellington.

We set off at 9 in the morning and Robert drove us to Wellington and then onto the different bays e.g. Island bay, Evans Bay.

The weather was amazing, despite the fierce wind that was blowing sand all over the place. We could even see the mountain peaks of the south island.

After lunch we decided to head back to Paraparaumu but we went through the Hutt valley instead of along the Kapiti coast.  Travelling through the hills and the bush was amazing and the view from the tops of the hills was beautiful 

Me aunty christine and robert

Wellington again!

Last saturday I went to Wellington again on my own as I discovered on the friday that there is so much to see!  So i came back for a second time.

Catching the train bright and early I zipped along the Kapiti coast and arrived in Wellington at half 9 in the morning.  None of the main museums/attractions were open at the time, so I thought I'd have a walk about and see what was open.

Wellington in the morning

I walked about and went inside the Wellington land and sea museum and had a look around.  It's only a small building so it only took me an hour to see all of the exhibitions.  Most of them were to do with the harbour and the evolution of Wellington from a small town to the modern capital that it is today.  Highly interesting. 

Floor map of Wellington and the cook strait

The museum itself

I then walked around the harbour taking lots of pictures as I went and then walked around to oriental bay where I got myself an icecream and relaxed beside the beach before I made my way to Te Papa (the main museum in Wellington) to spend the rest of my day there.

Gorgeous day

I arrived in Te Papa around 12 and spent the rest of the day walking around seeing the various exhibitions e.g. Geosciences, new zealand history, the art galleries etc

The giant squid 

The treaty of waitangi, New Zealands founding document (like the equivalent of the declaration of independence) 

The imperial section

The Maori Marae 

Hello again

Hello again, I've been quite busy over the past 5 days.

Been to Wellington three times and have been shown all of the bays on the Wellington peninsula by my aunt and her partner, so I've been completely distracted and havent been able to fill in the blog.

I went to Wellington on Friday on my own and basically wandered around finding things to do.  There is quite a lot to do inWellington as it turns out.

I firstly went from the railway station to the parliament buildings and then after that I walked along Lampton Quay to the cable car terminal where I luckily caught a seat on the cable car before it got too busy.  When I got to the top I enjoyed the views of Wellington and the botanic gardens before I caught a shuttle-bus to Zealandia (a conservation park aiming to conservate native New Zealand animals and plant life)

It was incredibly interesting, the exhibition had various sections e.g. Geoscience and conservation and flora and fauna etc.  After I had had a look around I then went on a walk through the park up to the main dam and back down to the entrance which took me two hours.  I was surrounded by a thick forest filled with strange animals such as the tuatara lizard and the various bird species that are nested in the trees.

It really was an amazing place, however I wish that I had been able to spend the whole day there to do the other various walks.

I then caught the half 4 train back to Paraparaumu!

Parliament buildings

Cable car

View from the top of the cable car

Wellington botanic gardens

Me on the upper dam 

The forested valley

An adult Tuatara 

A native parrot to New Zealand the Kaka

First days of my stay in Paraparaumu

I haven't had access to wifi for the past couple of days, that's why it hasn't been updated recently.  Unfortunately there will be some intermissions similar to this but I will try to update the blog as much as I can.

On the 17/11/2013 I caught the intercity bus from Taupo i-site to Paraparaumu railway station.  I got on at 10 and arrived at 3 so I had plenty of time to read, listen to music and snooze.

When I was at the railway station I was greeted by my Auntie Christine and Robert and they took me back to their house the long way so I could see Paraparaumu.

Over the past few days I have been exploring Paraparaumu and meeting up with family.  I have also been to Wellington and must say that it is a really nice city and I intend to go for a couple of visits on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The weather here is really amazing and considering we are in the spring period I cannot wait to see what summer is like, I may even get a tan if I'm lucky, ha.

I'm going to be trying to look for a job while I'm here and will be keeping myself busy with volunteering if the quest to find a job fails, but I hope it doesn't.

Here are a few pictures I've taken over the past couple of days.

Lucky, rachel and marks dog

Paraparaumu beach 

My New Zealand home

My phone for a while

Wellington harbour

Last day in Taupo

I woke up at half 10 and went to book the boat trip to the Maori cave carvings.  Breakfast consisted of nuttella on toast and an apple ... Can't wait to get to Paraparaumu (meals wise). 

I then made my way down to the Taupo Marina where I took a couple of pics of the lake.

 Some wisps of cloud above but later on it cleared up nicely

Front of the Marina

The sailing boat I was on "fearless,"

I then got talking to Harriet and Eve and we enjoyed the mini cruise together, taking in the surrounding scenery and getting very wet from the turbulent waves of Lake Taupo.

It was however despite being very wet and rocky, a great experience and seeing the coastline and the carvings was incredible, especially on a fine day like this.

 Taupo

The small bays around the lake shore are covered in dense bush but further up the hills are appropriately situated holiday homes and villas etc.

The cliff face was spotted by Matahi Whakataka-Brightwell in the 1970's and he quickly realised how ideal the cliff face was for a carved canvas.  The face on the cliff is the face of Ngatoroirangi, an ancestor who helped his family and tribe to migrate from the bay of plenty to Taupo over a thousand years ago.

The lines on his face represent the generations of his family, upward facing swirls represent male family members and downward facing swirls represent female family members.  The Maori had no written language before the Europeans came, so using patterns, carvings and drawings were their way of preserving information e.g. Family records etc.

It took Metahi 3 summers to complete the carvings.

 The lizard is meant to be the guardian of thecarvings

 There were various other carvings done in a celtic style e.g. The mermaids in the bottom left corner.  Metahi did this to represent the cultural diversity of New Zealand.  Blame the bad picture quality on the rocky boat haha.

Tongariro pass!

I woke up at 04:00am and despite the clatter and the constant noise I was generating my room mates still were rast asleep.  Amazing. 

Had a big breakfast and then caught the shuttle bus and started speaking to some german girls in german, finally putting it to some good use.  It's actually so strange how many Germans there are in New Zealand, not thatiut's a bad thing, but I just didn't expect so many of them.

The shuttle bus took an hour to get to the car park at the base of the tongariro pass.  Well known for being called New Zealands best 1day hike.  I asked a dutch vietnamese guy and another German girl if I could walk with them and they said "of course" so as a result I walked up the devils stairs with them.

The weather was absolutely amazing this morning however it started to get ridiculously hot towards midday.  Wish I had worn a T-shirt to be honest.  The devils staircase was a challenge and a half although we climbed that in good time 08:55.

The views even from the top of the devils staircase were breathtaking so I couldn't wait to see the views from the top of one of the peaks.

We then decided to hike up mount Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom), which is pretty relevant to my degree course which was useful, e.g. Seeing the lava flows and the views of the volcanic formations from such a high viewing point.  

It's still an active volcano, but thankfully no eruptions or volcanic activity occured while I was on the mountain.

The hike up was a complete fail the first time and if I'm honest it was even a bit scary.  We hiked up the face of the volcano for 20 minutes and suddenly realised we had made a big mistake.  We had started to walk up the skree which is almost impossible to climb on.  I kept slipping and boulders and rocks from people further up the mountain face came tumbling down towards us. 

So we turned back but met a group of Brits who told us to climb up the old solidified lava flows as the rocks were solid and it was easier to climb up.

It doesnt look steep in the photo, but trust me it was!

I pretty much scrambled up the whole peak too afraid to look behind me as I discovered I hate heights and the thought of slipping or falling down the slope would have driven me crazy!

So I just powered on up the various rock faces trying not to tumble down to the bottom, there were no clear pathways or posts it was a do it yourself jobby.

It took us 1hr and 40mins to reach the top and I could finally enjoy the views!  After I scrambled up a giant sheet of snow and then a mount of loose rubble.  

Above the clouds

So high up!

When we got to the top we had lunch and I took some pictures of the crater.

 We had a but of a laugh saying that we should have brought a ring up to cast into the crater (Lord of the rings referrence)

I have to say though despite slipping on my arse several times on the snow, getting back down to the plains was quite easy and in some places fun, it was like surfing on sand, however my knees were almost dead by the end of it and I had a further 13km to go which fully knackered my legs.

I then hiked up to the big red crater and then onto the big blue lake before descending down into the forest to the car park.  I didn't necessarily rush this part of the walk.. Although I needed to catch my bus so I didn't mess about too much, turns out I just made the bus with 5 minutes to spare.  Very lucky.