Wellington and the surroundings

Finally having a car, we are now independent of our friends and can start some trips.

Tararua mountains

We went to the Tararua Mountains in Otaki Forks. This trip should be a preview to what we could expect in the next few months. It was an adventure to get to the mountains itself. The road ended in the middle of the mountains and only continued as a bad gravel road, where we also had to wait half an hour to pass because of tree felling works. The big machines were blocking the “road” and there was a traffic light so regulate the, almost not existing traffic. After that, we had to cross a bridge, which was hardly wide enough for a car, but was officially signed as a bridge for cars. It really didn’t look very trustworthy. Another time, we had to cross a little river, which they didn’t see worthy to change the road for. It is really funny, because you can find speed limit signs on this road. Guess what they say? Speed limit is 100 km/h. As if anyone would voluntarily drive more than 50 km/h on this road! Oh, at least, that’s what I think, maybe the Kiwi people are crazy enough to do it?

In the Tararua mountains you can find many different hiking tracks in all difficult levels and different durations. We did two of them on one day. They were partly following the Otaki river, crossing wild and big forests, who look like jungles or leading over wide and open fields or even over suspension bridges. All along the ways, you can see the typical fern trees, which are the national symbol of New Zealand. We weren’t so lucky with the weather, but it is winter so that was more or less to be expected. The landscape was amazing anyway!

Paekakariki Hill Road

The paekakariki hill road is a windy road that goes up the Paekakariki Hill, from where you have an amazing view over some parts of the island. As the weather was astonishingly good, we went there. Another reason was, that we didn’t want to walk anymore, after the full day of hiking the day before with never ever before used shoes, which, as you can imagine, was not very comfortable. A small tip besides: always walk in your shoes, before going hiking. Another advice that I got, was to wear two pairs of wool socks over each other.

This day, the sky was so clear, that we could even see the snowy peak of Mount Taranaki to the north and shadowy the contours of the southern island. You can also see Kapiti Island western of the island, which is not far away and a national reserve. Only few people per year are allowed to go there and it’s not really cheap. There are countless beaches close by, where you will find the beautifully coloured Paua Mussels. The sunset is nice enough, but behind Kapiti Island, so you cannot fully enjoy it from here.

Wellington

Wellington is New Zealand’s capital, but only the second biggest city in New Zealand, after Auckland, which is in the north of the North Island. It is an a peninsular, which is why it is so windy there. Wellingtons nickname is Windy Welly. It has many museums and places to visit. I am not that interested in big cities, which is why we went to see the Massey Memorial, from where you have a good view over Wellington and then continued to the peninsula of Wellington to the Red Rocks. There you can, as expected from the name, see the red rocks and during this time of the year also some seal colonies. To see them, you have to look closely enough, because with their colour, they are almost invisible on the rock. But if you see one, you’ll soon detect more of them. The railway station of the city is really beautiful and Wellington also has a lot of museums to offer. During the bad weather in the last days, we discovered some of them.

A few kilometres away in Waikanae is the Southward Car Museum, which is the biggest car museum in the southern hemisphere. That’s so funny, when they say that, that is used almost everywhere as an advertisement, because there is not much in the southern hemisphere, so it’s not so hard to have the longest, biggest, highest or whatever. So, if you read this, don’t expect too much. Same with this car museum, it was just a normal, not even big museum, but it was nice anyway. They didn’t only have cars, but also motor bikes and airplanes. Other things like cups, collections of porcelain, medals and coins, where also displayed. It was a pity, that they put everything so close together and you couldn’t really enjoy it.

Another day, we went to the Te Papa National Museum in Wellington. You should bring a lot of time, if you want to see everything in this museum, because it has really a lot to offer on its six floors. Already outside of the museum, they recreated different landscapes from New Zealand, like some caves, volcanoes, waterfalls and a forest. On the second floor, you will find everything you want to know about New Zealand’s nature. All the different kinds of plants and trees, animals and especially birds. What the museum is most proud of is the octopus, the biggest one on earth in a museum, is in their museum. They show a film, about the preparation of it and how they brought him in the museum. It is really impressive. Also, you will get many information about volcanoes and earthquakes, which are pretty frequent in New Zealand. You can even experience an earthquake in a simulator. On the fourth floor, you will find the whole history of New Zealand, about how the Maori and the Europeans came here and how everything changed. What I was most interested in, was the Maori relicts: the jewellery, the weapons, the tools and buildings. On the upper floor are some art exhibitions, modern and older ones.

A very important thing for all Tolkien fans: you will find in almost every touristic shop in New Zealand, because it is the country of Middle Earth, everything about the films of Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit: the films, t-shirts with the characters from the films, different games, even Monopoly, books about the films, the making-offs, the actors, the shooting of the films, the landscape and locations and all the jewellery from the films: The One Ring, the necklace of Arwen, the ring of Thorin Oakshield, the sword of Bilbo, the key for the Lonely Mountain, literally everything!

In Miramar are the WETA Caves, which is part of the film studios and a mini museum about the Lord of the Rings, a shop, where you can buy almost everything about the movies and the WETA Caves: small replicates of the characters or the locations as the Shire, Rivendell, Barad-dur, engraved stones, books, mugs…. In the Caves you can do a guided tour for 20 dollars. A young employee explained us how they create figures and weapons from images and drawings, how they paint them, how they make them look real, without being dangerous and although good to handle for the shootings…. Everywhere, you would see characters and parts of former movies, especially Lord of the Rings, Narnia and King Kong, which they had produced. It was so impressing and I really felt sorry that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures. In the front of the Caves, the three trolls from Lord of the rings are standing as Bilbo as the dwarfs left them in the sun.

Another museum that we visited, was the National Tattoo Museum, or also called the Moko museum. There, you could find all different kinds of tattoos, especially the typical Maori tribal ones. They are mostly tattooed in their faces and thighs, but sometimes also have the Polynesian tattoos all over their body. It was interesting to get to know about their meanings, which mostly show their family roots, tribal and history.

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