Saturday afternoon, October 29th, we decided that we had a little time on our hands so we took off to explore the western hills and coastline of Wellington. We had no idea that it would turn out so beautiful and that we'd come across so many interesting tidbits. The trip was only about 30km or 20 miles but full of new sites. Here we go....
Wellington is behind the second range of mountains off to the left. This is the community of Karori, a suburb of Wellington about 7-9km away to the west.
It seems that every community has its' own ball field. Karori is not exception.
The don't just farm sheep here in the Wellington area. This is a "Wind Farm" and the arms of these windmills are about 60' long. We wanted to get a lot closer, but the road was private. Ann made me turn back!
Here's a typical farm home with sheep in the area just in front and a nicely kept drive up to the home. The trees surround everything.
And oh yes, the sheep and cattle are all over the hillsides here also. We're far enough out from town, about 15km, that Wellington is now behind the tall range in the background of this photo.
It was just a beautiful day and the Tasman Sea was very calm. We were surprised that there was little beach traffic.
We did have the seagulls and off behind them is a rubber dive boat that was just put on the trailer. The diver is retrieving a rope to pull the trailer all the way (about 50m) back to the parking lot.
Here's a close-up of the dive boat. You can see the dive tank and other accessories clearly. They must have had a lot of fun.
This is a picture of the coastline about 5pm. We learned today that if you want to take good pictures, go to the west coast in the morning and east coast in the afternoon and then you don't have to worry about dealing with the sun and bad shadows...anyway!
The road through the mountains and countryside was just beautiful. Frequently it was as though you were driving through a tunnel made of trees and other foliage.
You can see here how the road winds around the countryside. It's pretty beautiful isn't it!
All the way we were accompanied by a lazy flowing stream either on the left or right. It was about 6' - 8' wide and about 1' deep. I wondered if there were any fish in the chilly water, but we saw no fisherman so that's something to discover.
The flowers on the side of the road were everywhere and really made for some colorful scenery. Mollie, we did only a shot of the purple flowers in your honor!
I thought that this dead tree was really neat so we stopped and drove onto a path leading to a farm house. Pretty interesting wouldn't you say. Then just after I took the picture, when reviewing it I noticed something in the limbs that didn't look like it belonged. Upon further investigation, the picture below defines what was seen....
Yes, there was something behind that huge dead tree. I looks like deer of some sort. Let's go up the road a little further.
Well, that wraps up this trip into the countryside around New Zealand. We have a few other directions to go so watch for those posts at a later date. Happy travels of your own!
Oh, forgot to tell you...at the bottom of this post and the Labor Day post you'll notice a "Location" call out. This is a google earth shot of the locations we've been to. To view, simply click on the name of the site and bingo, you've got an aerial view of where we went. Pretty neat...let me know if you like it.
These are beautiful pics Tom and Ann. The green hills and sheep remind me a lot of what we saw in Scotland...but there it's not as hilly. I hope you enjoyed your day off!
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