Hello! It’s been a quick seven weeks, and they’re over today. I don’t have much to write about, so I’ll just share a few more photos from the last couple weekends. I got good feedback from Weta, had a few good and cheerful good-bye lunches, coffees and dinners, and now I’m looking forward to getting home and being a dad again. 🙂
Here’s a few random snaps from work lunches, after-work stargazing, a trip to the Zealandia bird sanctuary, and random tidbits from all over the place.
Generic view from one of the generic favourite lunch spots around Miramar.Zealandia, an ambitious bird sanctuary. No cages or nets, just a fence to keep rodents and predators out and create a safe space for the birds.In miserable days like this one, you don’t get to see many of them, though. But it was a good walk.Look, I found a bird!And another one!And a few more!We could send the kids to play here……while we eat in there. “The Botanist”, my favourite lunch spot.Another easy pick on the other side of the peninsula, “The Chocolate Fish”.Random snap on the way to work.Random abandoned warehouses, now art galleries and studios.A Sunday bike tour around Miramar.Headed into the hills after work for some star-gazing.
Last weekend, I packed up Sean and we ventured north again. We stopped at Mt Bruce bird sanctuary, saw an incredible sunset over Palmerston North, had a great dinner and a brief sleep at a real motel, a delightful breakfast at a random café, then drove up the Desert Road into Tongariro National Park, had a delicious lunch on the beach of Lake Taupo, drove on to find another good spot to wait for the next sunset, and then made it back to Wellington just before midnight. A lot of driving around to see areas you’d want to do hikes in. 🙂 It was great.
The green of the grass here always breaks my camera. It’s so incredibly green!The first peak at Mt Ruapehu, which pretty much dominates the complete trip with its constant looming over everything.Stopover at Mt Bruce. This is a Kākā.And this is a grainy b/w picture of a Kiwi, because it was too dark in their enclusure to get anything else.A wild pigeon. You’ll have to pay in excess of 100k $ if you run one over with your car.Kākāriki.The Kākā again.Sean making contact with a rare Kōkako. It makes the funniest noises. They pay you a healthy sum for finding them in the wild.We stopped to snap a few pictures, and a herd of cows ran up to us and started following us around. It was a tiny bit creepy.Sunset over Palmerston North.The Desert RoadThe… Desert… Railroad, I guess?Picture of the desert without the mountain for a change.But there it is again. 🙂Lake Taupo.Only 6km to Mt Doom (played to perfection by Mt Ngauruhoe).Sean under Mt Ngauruhoe, Mt Tongariro on the left.Sorry, another “Road to Mt Doom” pun picture.And this guy again, setting up the camera for the inevitable sunset pic.More peaks of the mountain.Shuttles bringing back hikers from the Tongariro Mountain Crossing left us huffing and puffing in their wake.Mountain.Mountains and moon.Finally, a sunset. And that’s that done. 🙂
The last week was thankfully slow and easy-going. That left me some time to go fool around with the trolls.
This guy got mad at me……because I was late……to a game of good old football.
Yesterday, I finally found time to visit Te Papa, the ‘Museum of New Zealand’. It’s big and it’s great. The really interesting bits about Māori culture you aren’t allowed to shoot pictures of, but Weta Workshop did a few pieces for an exhibition on New Zealand’s battles in World War I. They are over life-sized and the amount of detail is ridiculous. Fun fact: humans and apes are the only animals with only one hair follicle per skin pore. For modelers and sculptors, that means pinching in single hairs into the modeled pores by hand, one by one. Also, they’re real human hair. Because nothing else will do.
I had my favourite breakfast at Neo’s for the last time, walked along the waterfront for the last time, had cake at the Chocolate Fish for the last time, and went to a final dinner with Dan and Sean at a lovely restaurant around the corner for the first and last time. All we could do afterwards was complain about the fact that we didn’t go there sooner, the food was amazing. Sorry, I know I say that a lot.
Finished packing my bags, took the obligatory “blown away selfie”, and am now on the plane half-way to Hong Kong. Which means, your Sunday must be well underway now, and by this time tomorrow, I’ll be back in Stuttgart.
New Zealand, though! One way or another, we’ll be back there one day and see more of it. Right, let me find a sunset to finish with. See you soon!
I had my favourite breakfast at Neo’s for the last time, walked along the waterfront for the last time, had cake at the Chocolate Fish for the last time, and went to a final dinner with Dan and Sean at a lovely restaurant around the corner for the first and last time. All we could do afterwards was complain about the fact that we didn’t go there sooner, the food was amazing. Sorry, I know I say that a lot.
Finished packing my bags, took the obligatory “blown away selfie”, and am now on the plane half-way to Hong Kong. Which means, your Sunday must be well underway now, and by this time tomorrow, I’ll be back in Stuttgart.
New Zealand, though! One way or another, we’ll be back there one day and see more of it. Right, let me find a sunset to finish with. See you soon!
