This is part 7 in a series of travelogues about a vacation trip down under for myself, my partner, and 3 other family members.
The story so far:
Part 1 included a tour of Sydney, Australia and nearby areas, ending with our cruise ship sailing away from Sydney Harbour.
Part 2 focussed on a ship-board attraction, blowing hot glass at sea.
Part 3 included a visit to a wildlife sanctuary, to see Tasmanian Devils and other fascinating animals from Down Under.
Part 4 was a drive-by sailing through the Sounds of New Zealand.
Part 5 explored the city of Dunedin in what was a cool, drizzly, spring day in New Zealand’s south-east.
Part 6 had us docked in Akaroa NZ, with a bus trip over to Christchurch, visiting a sheep farm along the way.
Now we move up to New Zealand’s capital city Wellington, on the southern tip of the north island.
But first, a word from our sponsor:
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TONIGHT’s feature presentation: Wellington, NZ
Note: The photos in this diary are hosted on flickr. You can see larger versions of each image by right-clicking on the image, and selecting “Open image in new tab”. Or the equivalent for your device/operating system/browser.
Once again, our floating hotel Celebrity Solstice moved us overnight to a new location. As I reported in the previous instalment, we were surrounded by thick fog during the night, and the ship’s horn blasted “I’m here!” at regular intervals well into the wee hours of the morning.
At 9:15 AM, as we began our day’s excursion, this was the morning sky: ominous, bordering on angry.
But as our tour bus wound its way through the city, and then onto a narrow gravel road hugging the coast, the sky cleared. The rest of the day was cool, but mostly pleasant in an on-again off-again sort of way. The clouds and sun would take turns playing hide and seek throughout the day.
We were part of a convoy of 3 tour buses doing the same route. We drove along the Storm Coast to the entrance to Wellington’s harbour. From this vantage point, we could see New Zealand’s first permanent light house, Pencarrow Head, opened in 1859. That’s the one on top of the peak in the photo below. But there was a problem: at its high elevation, the light house was frequently enveloped in fog, and thus didn’t do its job very effectively. And so, the light house at the lower level was built in 1906. Perhaps counterintuitively, the lower one’s beacon was more visible to ships entering the harbour. The original, up above, was decommissioned in 1935 and is now a historic site. The lower light house is still in use to this day.
On New Zealand’s official tourist website, there’s a photo taken from the reverse perspective from my photo above. It shows the upper light house shot from above, and the road that hugs the coast. The lower light house is obscured by the hill in their photo.
Our bus drove along the narrow road to the lower light house. You can walk right up to it. I grabbed this shot quickly before the tower was surrounded by people taking selfies :-)
The harbour entrance is very picturesque.
In the old days, it was not uncommon for ships to hit the rocks attempting to enter the harbour. Thus the need for the light house(s).
Our convoy of buses slowly wound its way up and up the hillside.
Higher and higher.
Until we reached our destination at the peak, a sheep farm.
These were in a group of a half-dozen or so, penned in for the tourists. I crouched down between the wooden slats of the fence to greet them at eye level.
The working dogs at this farm looked like they were eager to begin the show...
...after a scritch behind the ears.
These dogs worked as a team, herding the sheep from the pen to a larger fenced area, and back again.
Lots of pictures were taken. I suppose many of them had me in the background. Their photos will show me, crouching down with my camera lens poking between the top two slats of the fence on my side of the yard.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the same farm:
Neat rows of vines.
A beautiful rustic old bench next to a picnic table.
Back to the buses, leaving the farm we had to wind our way back down the narrow road.
A ferry ship enters Wellington Harbour.
A much smaller boat was out close to the rocks, in increasingly choppy waters.
A final look back at the light houses, as the sky grows darker again.
Back the city, we stopped at the Wellington Botanic Garden. Despite the overcast sky, the colors of the roses came through.
(Touring Australian and New Zealand, here we have the equivalent of organized tours in the Mediterranean making a fetish out of stopping at yet another church. But this is not so bad.)
Back on board our ship, the view from Deck 11 looks down on Wellington’s Westpac Stadium, which is literally across the street from the dock. This photo was not taken with a fisheye lens; what you are seeing is the natural curves of the structure and the road.
On the adjacent port grounds, stacks of wood await shipment to other countries, mostly China.
A row of shipping containers separates the industrial and passenger sides of the dock.
The next diary in this series will take us further up the eastern coast of New Zealand’s north island, to Tauranga. There’s a full day at sea in between stops, in which we all relax and do as little as possible. At Tauranga, we visit a kiwi fruit farm. Delicious!
Top comments for Sunday April 17, 2016
From ZenTrainer:
Slightly Wobbly makes a very solid (pun intended) comment here in SemDem’s most excellent diary on arguing with Republicans “Arguing with the Right Wing: Recognizing Their Five New Favorite Fallacies”.
Inclusive Hearts response to Slightly Wobbly was my first laugh of the day
Back to the comments for hopefully more laughs!
From gizmo59:
Forwarding a Top Comment nomination by Champurrado. This comment by shagnaski makes interesting observations about the Republican worldview, and particularly on religion. From PsyWarWatcher's rescued diary “Middle America Politics of the Good but Naive”.
While I'm sending in comment highlighted by Champurrado, I'll point out I rather like terriertribe's response to shagnaski's comment.
Top mojo for Saturday April 16, 2016
Top photos for Saturday April 16, 2016