28/10
Today is Day 9 by Dad’s reckoning. Day 9! Almost halfway done. It’s going so quickly! We walked 17,800 steps today. No wonder I’m exhausted tonight!
After docking, we decided to walk to Te Papa, New Zealand’s premiere museum. It was a loooooooooooong walk. And windy! I almost thought we were in Highland it was so windy. And COLD. I loved it. 
Today is Day 9 by Dad’s reckoning. Day 9! Almost halfway done. It’s going so quickly! We walked 17,800 steps today. No wonder I’m exhausted tonight!
We cruised into Wellington Harbour early this morning, through an opening so small I’m amazed the cruise ship fit! It is a commercial port. You can take a shuttle for $5 each to downtown or walk. The fellow on the dock said, "It's quite far." But we decided to walk anyway.
Our 'nextdoor neighbor':
After docking, we decided to walk to Te Papa, New Zealand’s premiere museum. It was a loooooooooooong walk. And windy! I almost thought we were in Highland it was so windy. And COLD. I loved it.
Te Papa is HUGE. Three football fields big. We spent most of the time in the Maori area.
After about three hours (including walking time), we taxied back to the ship. (Heh.)
We ate lunch and then worked on trying to upload to the blog and caught a little nap before our ship-sponsored excursion to the Seal Coast. ('Seal Coast Safari')
It was AMAZING. Scary too. We went in a Toyota Land Cruiser. Somehow I was lucky and got to sit in front with a seat belt. Everyone else (Dad, Uncle Mike, Aunt Brigitte and two other passengers) had to rattle around in the back on side-facing bench seats. We drove through the city and then started 4-Wheeling straight up a mountain. Hanging on a tiny, windy (bendy, Kiwis say) dirt road, so far up I couldn’t bear to look down! Especially since my side was on the downward side. EEEEK.
We saw ostriches, wild horses, wild goats, tame horses, cows, dogs (pets), sea birds, seals, and other stuff I probably forgot. The other vehicle got stuck in the sand and had to all get out while they freed it. We got to stay inside.
And it was WARM. After I zipped the liners back into our jackets, dug out gloves and the warm hats, and we wore hoodies. But ten miles away and back at the ship it was FREEZING again. Go figure.
The guide asked us if we wanted coffee or tea for our tea break. He didn’t know how to handle those of us who drank neither. Brigitte suggested he tote along hot chocolate in the future too. We had our break while taking photos of the surrounds and of the seals. There were three there. These are young males who didn’t want to go to, or came back from the mating grounds on the south island. I guess if you can’t get the girls you came hang out at the bach pad! ('Bachs' are what Kiwis call their 'cabins'.)
So off to bed now. We’re getting up at 6am to watch us sail across Cook Straight (one of the roughest bodies of water in the world) and into Captain Cook’s Ship Cove. Then another boat tour. Isn’t vacation wonderful????
2 comments:
Please forgive the formatting problems. They emailed it to me, I posted it. My fault the pictures are a little wonky.
Aunt Robin, there are only 3 excuses for the quality of your pics. A)You have an extremely high quality camera that makes every pic look good, B)New Zealand is a magical place where you couldn't take a bad pic if you tried, or C)You have a talent with the camera. As much as B is enticing to imagine, I believe that you are a natural photographer. If everything else goes to pot, you can take beautiful scenic pics. I'm jelous!! (Cuase I'm a little obsessed with scenery...ok a lot)
Too bad you couldn't get a pic of the wild horses...
You know i've heard that New Zealand is the only place in the world that you can ski and surf in the same day...wonder if it's true.
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