Wellington, Part 2

Well, "no worries." A few phone calls and a long chat with a friendly host at a lodge in Wanganui set me back on the righteous path of adventure. I realized that I don't have to tramp every track I admire. In Wanganui, for example (I just love the sound of that name) there is a river tour to explore the gorge. As of now, I'm the only one going! I could also canoe it from upriver back to town, but why work hard?

So, the itinerary is:

Stay in Wellington through Sunday because it's going to rain all weekend in the southern portion of this North Island. No tramping in the mud for this young man, and I wouldn't see much, anyway, because of the low clouds. Monday it's a bus to Wanganui and two days later on to Stratford and Mt. Taranaki. I'm back in Wellington on Nov. 10th, to catch the Magic Bus the next morning for Napier.

Wait until you see where I'm staying in Napier.

This is the view of Wellington harbor from the Botanic Gardens, on a hill SE of the city. If you look on the map, the harbor actually opens more to the NE. It's well-protected from the "westerlies" - the nasty storm-winds.

The Te Papa museum is famous for a reason. It's sort of a natural history - native art - social history museum. Very well done, with a lot of interesting artifacts and historical information about the Maori.

The museum had some (stuffed) kiwi on exhibit, with a weka right nearby. You can see how similar they are, both in size and in design. Kiwi are not small birds. (That's a feral cat behind the kiwi on the left.)

Walking down (downhill - yay!) from the Botanic Gardens (after taking a cable car up), I passed through a cemetery, now closed to new arrivals. There was a sign pointing out that on the nearby hill were colonial houses of the first settlers, who are also buried in this graveyard.

Finally, it appears that nothing is safe from tagging. If it stops moving (or even if it just moves slowly), it's going to get tagged.