We go on Safari

We were on the 9:01 train into town this morning to meet our guide for the Seal Coast Safari.  According to the website, it was an off-road adventure during which we were guaranteed to see seals.  We arrived at the meeting place a little late but Kent, our guide and the director of the company, was in a good mood.

He showed us into a four-wheeler--a Land Rover, I think--and we went off to pick up our only other passenger, Sylvia, a transplant from England.

We started on regular roads and went high into the mountains.

Little did we know what was coming.  We went off-road and up through incredibly high hills on incredibly steep and narrow roads.  We were all white-knuckled.  Kent was chatting the whole time.  Later Meredith and Noreen told me they wanted to tell him to shut up and watch the road.

People actually live in these hills...including a fellow that bought an old government building and it turning it into a castle for guests.  Only government red-tape is preventing him from opening it.

Also along the way, we ran into a family of deer who were very friendly, al least until the realized we had no food.  Then they got bored.

Once over the hill we were riding along the rugged coast of the South End of the North Island.  The ride was incredibly bumpy.

And, as guaranteed, we saw plenty of seals.

We got close enough to have our picture taken with them in the background, but one finally snorted at us to stay away.

That's Sylvia with us in the picture above.  And here's Kent explaining some other aspect to the coast.

Happily, we did not go over the mountain again to get home, just around the coast.  And Kent dropped us off very close to a restaurant on the water where we had a nice--if slow--lunch.  Then we headed for the Te Papa Museum, which has been highly recommended by every source.

We were not really impressed.  So after about an hour, we were back at a harbor-side bar having a drink.

We were at Mac's Brewhouse, which had two seating areas, one near the building itself and one in the center of the courtyard.  And, according to a sign, staff members had to carry the drinks the courtyard between the areas.  That struck us as so funny--to see people accosted by a staff member as they left the one area and asked to put their drinks on the tray.

We were giggling so much about it, Noreen decided to see if she could foil the system by following close behind the waiter who was already carrying someone else's drink.

We actually clapped when she made it to the other side without having to give up her drink.  She let the guy carry it back.  He obviously knew what we were doing because he said to Noreen, "Stupid New Zealand Rules."

I should mention, also, that this bar had bean-bag chairs.

After that it was home, though we had to take the bus instead of the train because they were working on the train tracks.

Thursday is our last day here.

A Day in Wellington

We were a bit tuckered out this morning but got ourselves together to get the 10:31 train to Wellington from Plimmerton.

The train station, itself,  which is only a few minutes from where we are staying, is a trip.  The outside is very old style

 But the inside is actually a store for everything miniature trains.

The fellow there always suggests a special kind of ticket to save us money.  He is really nice and friendly.

We got into town with a few plans--to go to a souvenir store,  the information office, the cable car and Te Papa Museum.  (We should have known that was too ambitious a plan.) So when we got to town we headed for the souvenir shop on Lampton Quay.  We started on the wrong road and we guided to the right place by a very nice fellow who looked like he might have been a government official.  He said, "Don't you love this place.  We never have wind."  By which we took the meaning that it is normally extremely windy.  The weather has been so wonderful and the locals are all talking about the different weather they are having.  We love it.  We don't want it to change until we are gone.

Lampton Quay is about three streets up from the pedestrian walkway along the harbor in Wellington.  The interesting thing is that it used to be (1840s) the street nearest the beach.  Because of earthquakes and man-made land-fill, you now can't see the water from there.  We shopped for New Zealand products and gifts for a while until we came across the entrance to the cable car-- a funicular really--that travels up one of the many hills here.  As usual for this trip, our timing was great and we were on our way almost immediately.

At the top there was a cable car museum....

and a gift shop with some really cute things, including a floaty pen for Ada (she collects them).  The views were beautiful

The cable car stops right at the top of the Wellington Botanical Garden and has a nice cafe, we were told, so we started down the mountain toward the cafe.  I have to say, it was a lot farther down than we expected and we were getting a little hangry (hungry and angry) on the way.  But there were compensations,like this human sun dial.  Noreen followed the instructions to stand on the current date that was stamped in the concrete with the sun to her back and put her folded hands over her head.  And darned if the shadow did not indicate it was 1PM--it was actually 12:53.

Unfortunately, it was a bit hard to read the time off the phone, but take my word for it.  The Botanical Garden was also beautiful.

We finally got to the cafe and it was great. The food was wonderful--with menu items for everyone.  They served wine and beer and the setting was gorgeous.

right next to the rose garden.

Afterwards, we took our picture next to the pretty waterfall nearby.

I have to admit that the walk back to the city was tough, but at least we weren't hungry.  We got to the information office and booked a Seal Tour Safari trip for the next day, but by then it was really too late to go to the museum, so we did a bit more shopping and went home, exhausted.

Picton and the joy of driving on the left--backward

Yesterday we got up early to take the ferry to the South Island.  I was hoping for a beautiful trip and I was not disappointed.

Getting on the ferry with the car was a bit of a trial, but we finally were on and we went directly to the cafe and found some good seats in a section with all windows.  

The room in this section came in handy a little later when the early hour caught up with Meredith and Noreen.

The view going through the Queen Charlotte Sound was spectacular, both from inside our little area

and outside.

It was one of the most beautiful natural places I have been to in my life.

When we got to the ferry stop in Picton, we parked the car and went to the information office to see about getting some paddle boards and kayaks.  Then we had some lunch on the main street in this very small town.

I really wanted to paddleboard but when I got on the board, I just couldn't get up on my feet.  So I straddled it like a kayak.

Meredith and Noreen did not have any trouble.

Ada took a kayak right from the start.

It was pretty hard work paddling against the current so eventually the girls just got on the diving platform and went swimming in the very cold water.

As you can see, the weather was once again superb.  They are talking about a drought here, which we hope will be solved as soon as we leave, but not before, please.

These boards are very heavy and we had to carry them about 150 feet to the water and back over very hot pavement.  That was the hardest part of the experience.  And on the way back Noreen stubbed her big toe so badly that she thinks she may have broken it.  We took a picture to use in our future law suit.

After our water experience, we did a little shopping, had another drink on High Street and went off to find our ferry home.  We waited a very long time for it to show and then to begin accepting cars.  When we were finally ready to get on, a half-hour late, we were asked to turn around and back up half the length of the boat, maneuvering around a very large tanker train.  That was just not going to happen.  I had already scraped the tire in the morning misjudging the space between my left side and the curb as I exited the garage.  There was no way I was going to back up into a dark ship in a very narrow corridor, in a borrowed car with the steering wheel on the wrong side and the stick shift, which I rarely use, also on the wrong side.

I was holding up all the traffic getting into the boat when I very nice man in the car in front of me offered to drive it into the boat.  If he had not been there, our car--and the ferry--- would probably still be in Picton.

Here is where we ended up--as you can see I'm not exaggerating about our spot.

The only thing you cannot see in this picture is the wall right beside us.  

We used the three hour ferry ride back to play 20 questions, during which we found out that both Noreen and Meredith have some supernatural power in guessing who it is you have in mind.  It's weird and uncanny.

 When we were leaving, the very nice man who helped me back up said we should follow him onto Rt 1 North, which was very helpful.  We were very happy to get home--in one piece after a really lovely day--minus the backing up, of course.