Wellington

WOW! Wellington - what a beautiful area! We spend a lovely few days here between our Dunedin and Kerikeri housesits.

Our Airbnb on the Miramar peninsula affords us a clear view of the Wellington Harbor. In lieu of going into the city center, we take a long hike around and up and over the peninsula head and catch many sights along the way.

The harbor views are gorgeous. We are excited to discover that penguins nest in this area and are not surprised to see predator boxes all along the way. New Zealand has a goal to be completely predator free by 2050! After stopping in a beach cafe for a yummy breakfast, we smile walking past one of those “little libraries” housed in an old phone booth and then discover a functioning lighthouse. We turn inland to climb up to a rather ostentatious memorial for William Massey, a Prime Minister of NZ, and his wife, from where we can see the city and Mount Victoria across the harbor!

Along our route there are various walkways up and down through neighborhoods and past schools and businesses. One such neighborhood business is the WETA workshop. We skip the tour but pop in to the mini museum featuring famous creations of this special effects and prop company. This is the land of The Lord of the Rings after all and of course, while here in NZ, we have watched the entire trilogy (extended editions) trying to recognize the various filming locations. BTW WETA is not an acronym but the name of an endemic NZ insect, a large, bizarre and prickly sort of cricket.

Rain falls steadily our second day here. We are happy to stay in, watch the Women’s World Cup (Go USA!) and catch our breath before flying further north to Kerikeri.