Windy Wellington

Update 6+7 Wellington

On Monday we set of to go to Wellington. Another 300 Kms but mostly over flattish terrain so should not take too long. the trips started out well, but after a while we got slowed down by..... a house.

Arnica told me before that NZ was the only country where she'd ever been overtaken by a house! So as we were driving along we suddenly saw a little truck with a sign: “caution house” on the back of it. In front of that was a huge articulated lorry with a 2 bedroom house on the trailer. The damn thing was so wide it blocked both lanes of the road and so high it hit the overhanging power and telephone lines on several occasions! In front of the lorry 2 cars where directing trafic. at some places the other cars had to of the road and onto the shoulder to allow the house to pass. And during all that they managed to keep the speed up pretty good! I think they averaged about 80 Kph! Fortunately every now and again the whole convoy moved over to the side to let the cars trailing behind it past.

Close to wellington we stopped at Mount Bruce. Here they have a little bird sanctuary. There was a short bush walk and we got to see a kiwi real close in the kiwi house. Jeroen got a real fright when two Kaka (native NZ parrots) got into a fight and came thundering down the little track we were walking on and zoomed by our heads!

After that we reached wellington without further incidents. In the evening tristan came by for a cup of tea. He and Saskia live about ½ an hour away. Saskia had to work late but it was great cathing up with Tristan. Of course he had to go on the Jumping pillow as well and soon kids were flying all over the place!

The following morning we went for a short walk in Wellington and took the cable train up to the botanic gardens. Unfortunately we spend quite some time looking for a place to park so our time at the gardens was somewhat limited. The fact that I always want to be early did not help either.

By the time we got on the ferry the winds had picked up to gailforce so the first part of the journey was a bit bumpy. Fortunately after we passed the Wellington harbour entrance the waves were not too bad and the rest of the trip was comfortable. Both Jeroen and Jasper slept most of the trip. When we arrived it was off to the holliday camp in picton and go to bed.