Hello everyone. I have had a very busy day, which included three separate Skype dates, and then a high-energy and delightful barbecue (apparently that's the Kiwi way to spell it) with some friends who very kindly invited us over. I am very happy with our day, but I feel all talked out after so much discussion and sharing with so many people. Not surprisingly, that does not put my in a blogging mood. Fortunately, today's post relies heavily on pictures, so hopefully you will not be too disappointed in my lack of enthusiastic descriptions. Be assured that I was enthusiastic as I was actually seeing these things. :)
The first set of pictures are of my walk down Oriental Parade, which is a road that runs along the harbour. It has a great walking/biking trail that goes along next to it, with stairs down to the beach.
I stopped to get some ice cream, and found "Kapiti Coast New Zealand Originals" in a little shop. The Kapiti coast is just west of Wellington, and is very beautiful. I got this passionfruit ice cream popsicle, and it was ridiculously delicious.
As I was walking, I noticed a trail zig-zagging up a hill, and so I followed it. It lead up through forested areas, with houses build here and there on the side of the hill, and when I got up high, it gave me great views looking back on the harbour where I'd walked. (I walked along that strip of sandy beach you can see in the left side of the picture and around to the trail at the bottom right.) When I found it on the map, it was labeled Mount Victoria, and it looks like there are trails that extend quite a ways from the water. I did about half an hour of hiking, but there is lots more for next time.
At the top of one of the trails is this wonderful slide, which, of course, I tried out. It is actually quite fast, especially when you get to the curve. :)
This is Matiu/Sommes Island, to which I had missed the ferry that morning. I am definitely going next time we're in Wellington! You will hear more about it when I post about Māori legends sometime soon.
This is the beach where I found the paua shell and the sea glass.
The next few pictures are from Wednesday night, when J, Lionel, and took the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens. It was rather cold and definitely raining, so we didn't linger as long as we might have otherwise, but it was still beautiful.
I know it's cliché, but I love drops of water on roses.
I have never seen roses this colour. Seems like they would be a hit at K-State.
On the way back from the gardens, we went by the capital buildings. I had already seen them when it was not rainy, but J and Lionel got to see them, so that was good.
This is Parliament House, where they have the Debating Chamber and the Speaker's Office.
This one is called "The Beehive," and it is the Executive wing of the parliament buildings. It is much bigger than it looks in this picture - I could not get far enough away from it to get the whole thing into a picture without a big tree in the way or something.
There is plenty more of Wellington coming - I may have to space it out in between updates on other things, because it is going to take me a while to cover it all.
Beautiful as always! Lori bought me purple roses for my 40th birthday. That was the first time I saw purple roses. The picture of the island, wht land is that behind the island? Also across the bay. Is that the south island?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kim. What you can see on the other side is actually the other side of the harbour. It is almost a full circle, and I was on a southern part, and the picture is taken toward the north-east. The island is in the middle of the harbour.
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