Wellington

Today we explored Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand! We had coffee and a quick bite at The Lab cafe near our Airbnb and walked to the cable car to catch a ride up the hill. The cable car was originally built in 1902 and was redone with Swish technology in the late 90’s. Before the renovations, the grip-man had to use their strength to hold the car onto the cables that pulled it up hill - crazy! It wasn’t as steep as the cable car in Hong Kong but they did have fun light shows in the tunnels. In addition to this public cable car, there are also over 150 private cable cars in the city to access homes that are built onto the hills. We explored the botanical gardens a bit and then caught the shuttle over to Zealandia. Zealandia is the world’s first fully fenced urban Ecosanctuary with over 500 acres enclosed by a preditor free fence. The goal is to restore this valley to its pre-human state with as many native plants and birds as possible. New Zealand didn’t have mammals until humans arrived and brought them which really hurt the bird population, especially the flightless birds. We enjoyed walking the paths and looking for birds and saw quite a few different species including the Kaka which is a large brown parrot that Chels has been hoping to see. When we were about as far out as we’d planned to walk we got caught in a un-forecast rain storm and had to find cover under the trees and eventually in a small shelter. It dumped! We we eventually decided to walk through the storm to see the viewing tower and dam before making our way back to the entrance and shuttle. Just before leaving we saw a nest in the trees along the lake with a mom and two baby Little Shags or Kawau paka, which are aquatic birds similar to cormorants. Mamma was feeding her two babies. We caught the shuttle back to the cable car, took the cable car back down the hill, and walked back to our Airbnb for some dry socks and jackets before heading to Cuba Street for dinner at Scopa Italian. It seemed like the rain had stopped so we walked the waterfront after dinner and down Courtenay Place which seems to be a very vibrant area with bars and clubs. The rain started again so we made our way home and called it a night.Leer más