View over Wellington

Back to Wellington

Paul here…

So after the ANZAC day service we set out on our last road trip – down to Wellington, about a 4 hour drive.

Foxton Dutch Windmill

Foxton Dutch Windmill

As usual the New Zealand scenery was stunning. At Foxton it became very flat and suddenly there was a Dutch windmill! That was a surprise. We stopped off and filled up with Dutch liquorice and other Dutch goodies from the shop inside. It was like being back in Amsterdam.

Arriving in Wellington we saw our cousins’ new home for the first time.

Unlike many NZ houses it is 3 storeys high, and set in the bush. It feels just like living in a big tree house!

Fishing in Wellington Harbour

Fishing in Wellington Harbour

For the last few days we’ve been up to all sorts – fishing in Wellington Harbour, visiting the Wellington Botanical Gardens, visiting the brilliant Te Papa museum which has a Gallipoli exhibition on until 2019, visiting old friends from Wales, and meeting new people over pizza cooked in a home made pizza oven. It’s been busy!

We’ve had a great 2 weeks touring around with Chris and Belinda and the kids.

All change tomorrow – Chris and Belinda are back in work, the kids are back to school and we fly out Monday evening for Auckland, LA and London…

A great 4 week holiday 🙂

Gallipoli "giants" by Weta

Gallipoli “giants” by Weta

Gallipoli "giants" by Weta

Gallipoli “giants” by Weta

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Anne here…

As I said in an earlier Blog post, Hamilton Gardens was a real highlight for me especially. Here are some of our favourite pics:

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

 

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Hamilton Gardens

Punnet Strawberry Ice-cream

Cambridge and Hamilton

Anne here…

Leaving Rotorua and, based on good advice, we called into Punnets cafe on the outskirts of Cambridge for a local favourite: berries whisked into vanilla ice-cream… mmm… delish!

Cambridge is wealthy and horsey; lots of stud farms; large bungalows with well manicured lawns and is a fruit growing area. It’s very pleasant.

Hamilton is a modern multi-cultural city – the fourth largest in New Zealand. And it also made a good impression, slightly contrary to our expectations.

Waikato river from the Novotel

Waikato river from the Novotel

Here is the view from our Novotel hotel room window. The river was very full and is a key feature through the city.

But it was definitely Hamilton Gardens that completely stole the show for me.
It was so good we did it twice! Well that’s not strictly true. We saw five themed gardens on Saturday but it suddenly started pouring with rain, perhaps appropriately when we were in the tropical garden, so heavily that we had to abandon our visit. But I loved it so much, I was really keen to go back this morning – a really lovely way to spend Easter Sunday morning. I enjoyed the themed gardens so much they get a blog post all of their own…

Yachts in Viaduct Basin

Let the holiday begin: In Auckland

Anne here.

So exciting to see a bit of Auckland again. We keep saying to each other “do you remember this from last time?”

Although in truth we will only see a very small part of Auckland again.

Now bear with me I’m going to be very British and talk about the weather. The forecast was very dramatic – thunderbolts, lightening, cyclone strength winds. But it didn’t get as far as Auckland.

Auckland Sky Tower

Auckland Sky Tower

Instead, after a foggy,  very humid start, we got brilliant blue skies, glorious sunshine and sparkling blue water in the harbour. Perfect holiday weather.

But it was so different to the forecast, all the locals were talking about the weather all day. We felt right at home 🙂
So after walking down the main shopping street, we spent most of our time just wandering around the harbour looking at the boats and enjoying the sunshine.
Followed by the most idyllic leisurely lunch.
Oh yes, and then there was the cannon …!