great day today so i suggested we go to the zoo. looking at the google map it didn’t look that far so i proposed we walk.
the trouble started almost immediately. on all maps melbourne road is a nice straight road about 10 blocks long. in reality it is a series of very hilly one block long segments with a step step of stairs connecting each block. so we’re getting quite the workout on what looked to be the easy part of the journey. when i printed out the map i though it odd that google had us taking a right on jackson st and heading backwards for a bit when there was another road that was much shorter that went through the park. when we get to jackson i declare “onward!” and we start looking for the path through the park. the first path we choose just disappears 100 meters into the woods. we backtrack and pick another path that looks promising. we’re heading up a steep path through the woods that is getting smaller and more overgrown the farther we go. at one point the path is complete blocked with thorny bushes and we’re forces to crawl under commando style.
let me admit here that since this excursion was my idea and i’m picking the route i view it as an adventure for all. if it were someone else’s journey i don’t expect i would be so generous in my assessment.
ultimately we reached a clearing at the top of the and are rewarded with a spectacular view of the island bay to the south and the city to the north.
after one more error by the navigator we arrived at the zoo.
i now carry a gps device that tags all my photographs with a location. a side-effect is that you can see your wanderings. you can see our drunken path to the zoo, our strolling around to exhibits and then our walk to the bus stop for the ride home.
growing up in saint louis with one of world’s best it is hard for any other zoo to stack up, but the wellington zoo did ok it it’s small town way. it is less than half the size of the stl zoo (13 hectacres [32 acres] compared to 77 acres) and most of the exhibits are not as modern, but the newest additions were promising.
the signage all had a blend of kiwi frankness and humour. one said “if you sit on the railing you will fall into the pen with the lion and you will die”.
i think the aussie kangaroo was a bit put off by being put on display in nz.
p?hutukawa is a new zealand native evergreen that produces amazingly vibrant red flowers each year from november to january with a peak in late december.
accordingly it is referred to as the new zealand christmas tree.
quite stunning.
the flowers are actually a mass of stamens.
the first tree is at the bottom of the tiber street steps and send me off and welcomes me home each day. the second shot is from my evening bus stop. i’m looking down the parade down to the ocean. you can see the P?hutukawa’s lining the parade.
when the season ends the ground is covered in a blanket of red. we saw this yellow flowering variety at the zoo. i’ve since learned that they are cultivated from a lonely pair of yellow’s found 1940 on m?titi island in the bay of plenty. explained as genetic drift.
merry christmas and happy holidays to all,
antony, jackie & gromit
ok - so i guess the whole thing about a better work life balance in new zealand was not just marketing hype.
new zealand has nearly shut down for the next 2 weeks.
i was looking forward to my time off, but was not prepared for everyone else to take time off also.
2 footnotes to the last image.
it’s from my favourite lunch place - the higher taste restaurant. i went in the first time out of curiosity and have been going back 2 or 3 times a week since. if they would cook all my meals i could become a vegetarian (vegan actually) tomorrow and miss nothing - well except the all-you-can-eat tony roma’s baby back ribs dinner.
the second is the irony of the hare krishna restaurant being closed for christmas
there was a 6.8 earthquake last night off the east coast of the north island near the town of gisborne. we didn’t feel anything here in wellington and all is well.
and now back to our regular programming…
today we went off in search of a christmas tree. this was a bit of a surprise to us but putting up a tree is much less common in nz than in the states. and many of those who do put up a “tree” are actually putting up a branch. turns out if you cut off a branch from one of the local pines and turn it upright it looks more than a bit like a traditional christmas tree. and since a big pine will yield a truck load of these this is what most kiwis use. you can pick one up at the local gas station for NZ$25.
we opted to try and find the real thing, and after asking around quite a bit we found a flyer at the local high end grocery pointing us to a christmas tree farm in greytown - about and hour and a half up state highway 2.
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the weather was fantastic and it gave us a reason to go to a new place, so off we went. the drive to upper hutt is a nothing special, but then you begin the climb up a narrow twisty road through the rimutaka range. the views were spectacular and the driving a bit harrowing. the road is about an inch wider than two cars, falls off sharply and most of the time all that is between you and the abyss is a rickety wooden picket fence. great views from the top.
after you descend from the rimutakas you drive through the martinborough plains. the scenery reminded me of our earlier travels through the canterbury plains on the south island and why we came here.
it was a bit odd walking the aisles of the christmas tree farm on a warm sunny day in our shorts and t-shirts.
this picture of boston this year is more what i am used to.
we soon found a nice douglas fir that met our needs and asked one of the staff to make it ours. after they cut it down they carry the tree and you carry the chainsaw. given the distance back to our house the tree actually rode inside
here it is back in our home and ready for the holidays.
on the way home we stopped in featherston for a snack and beer at one of the late 19th century hotels that most small towns here have. these are great old buildings from the gold rush days that will have a bar on one side of the ground floor, a dining room on the other side and lodging on the upper floor. [no excuse for lack of photo - sorry] the condition of these varies dramatically from town to town and it hurts me badly to see any of them not at their best. this one was in fantastic condition. it was easy to envision the miners at the bar on side and the town’s elite in their victorian finest dining on the other. in keeping with history we had that classic snack from the gold rush era - nachos.
at work the next day when some of my colleagues asked what i had done over the weekend i told of our success with both the tree and the stand. i think they were quite amused at the length that went to to get a tree. when i mentioned how hard it had been for us to find a stand and asked where they got theirs, the response was “a christmas tree stand? - you mean a bucket filled with rocks?…” i’m guessing we may have one of the few special purpose built christmas tree stands in island bay.
today is jackie’s birthday. happy birthday to the jboss
in the most-creative-birthday-card category we have a clear winner.
heidi, debby, glenn, jim, and barb have added their entry into the now international images-with-toast competition.
well done.
as i flashed my bus pass to the driver today i started thinking about how much less we were spending on just getting back and forth to work. i understand that the comparison is a bit flawed since the jboss is no longer working for the man - but the savings are real.
if you add up how much we were spending for insurance, maintenance, gas, tolls, taxes and depreciation just to drive back and forth to work it tallies up to a bit shy of $20,000 per year.
just to get to work and back.
here in nz we have just our used corolla and use the bus for almost all of our traveling. that plus the ability to walk to most everything (grocery, coffee, movie, paper, post, meals, pharmacy & beach) means the car mainly just sits unused out front. i haven’t been in it for a couple of weeks now.
gas prices here are crazy (NZ$1.78 / litre - or about US$5.50 / gallon) but we drive so little that it doesn’t really matter much.
adding up our nz costs the total was NZ$5,900 or about US$4,425 per year.
net savings: over US$ 15,000 per year.
that’s a lot of green. and red and purple. (nz currency has different colours for each denomination)
it seems in nz most items are shipped in their original packaging rather than placing them inside a plain shipping box.
score one for the environment, but it can spoil a bit of the surprise of what you’re getting for christmas.
it looks like someone is getting a coffee maker.
sorry santa.
the buses in wellington are a mix of diesels and electrics. the locals call the electrics “trolleys” referencing back to the days when they ran on rails. the #1 island bay line is electrified so many of my rides are on the trolleys.
the trolleys get their power from a pair of overhead lines. each trolley has 2 spring loaded arms that ride on the overhead power lines to provide the juice. not surprisingly on occasion the arms dislodge from the lines and the trolley comes to an abrupt stop. that happened to us on the way home tonight.
our bus driver was a 50 kg (110 lb) soccer mom with pony tails. she gets out of her seat, puts on a bright orange safety vest, pulls on a pair of heavy lineman gloves and steps out to set things right. she is now standing at the back of the bus with traffic flowing around her heaving on the ropes that connect to the power arms working to get them back on the lines. 5 minutes later of what looks like is hard work and she’s back behind the wheel and we’re on our way again.
i fully expect to have her out there with a jack and lug wrench if we get a flat. “no worries. i’ll have us on our way in again in a jiffy”
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