Weekend in Wellington

Cable Car and Sea/City View

Parliament Building

Cool 'floating' ball in Civic Square

Rare 'Stich Bird' we sighted in the Karori Bird Sanctuary

We had a great time in Wellington this past weekend to celebrate my birthday! We caught a flight up after work on Friday afternoon (only a 45 minute flight) and stayed at a hotel downtown. Saturday morning we took a cable car up to an overlook and walked back down to the city through the botanical gardens and city cemetery (Blaine loves cemeteries...I know it's weird). We had lunch on Lambton Quay (pronounced 'key') and toured the Parliament to learn more about NZ government. In the afternoon, after a nap of course, we took a bus out to the Karori Bird Sanctuary just 10 minutes from the city. It was such a great experience, we felt like we were going too late in the day but it ended up being the best time for bird activity. We saw many rare birds that are only on off shore islands and native to New Zealand. Blaine and I enjoyed the challenge of photographing these birds with our zoom lens; it gave us a much greater respect for wildlife photographers. We had a lovely dinner at a tiny Italian restaurant. Sunday we had brunch at Mother's Kitchen and headed to the Te Papa Museum (another thing Blaine likes is museums...not as weird as cemeteries). This is a world-recognized museum of New Zealand history and culture...very well done, interactive and diverse. We pretty much spent all day there, with a break to have lunch with my friend Emilie (my French friend who used to work in CCU with me) and her husband and 2 kids at a nearby French bistro then toured their home with a seaview. All in all it was a very enjoyable weekend!