Part of the culture of Wellington is the tugs.
There are three of them and a fourth on order.
These puppies rule the harbor!
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| This is "Tommy the Tug" or the Toia |
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| The look from the wheel room is amazing |
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| Takes a lot of power to move monster ships into place! |
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| Most of the ships visiting Wellington are container ships and these container movers get the job done |
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| These monster crains go left and right and can reach out a pluck a container from anywhere on the ship |
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| Every now and then one of the monster cruise ships like this the "Queen Elizabeth" come into port and drop off 3,500 visitors |
Sorry, but no updates since November
Some of the cultural experiences these past few months have been really fun to witness. Here are just a couple of them:
We were driving around Wellington Bay and noticed a boat clipping along at a very high rate of speed heading exactly where we were going...over to Eastbourne. We got there and of course being a Saturday the normal fish boat was there selling the previous day's catch as you can see below.
Then in front of us it became evident what was up, the police on-board the police boat needed some fish and here's the hand-off. I'll bet their license doesn't need renewing!
Then while driving around we spotted these cows.
The are affectionately called "Oreo Cows"...da!
We still haven't seen a living Kiwi. This was on display at the National Museum and may be as close as we get to the real thing!
While driving the shore of Wellington Harbour, we caught the Reserve getting ready to practice. There was a total of 3 rubber boats.
We'll continue with some of the cultural items we've run into:
It's not uncommon to see a sign just like this advertising the purchase of a specialty items! In this case the cost is only $1.00 for a bag of "Poo".
One thing that New Zealand has is beautiful birds. This one I had to call out and I don't even know it's name. It wakes us up every morning with it's music. I'll see if I can find the name
At a craft show we went to this fellow was letting all the children give a go at making pottery. We thought that was pretty neat!
A "Kiwi" phrase is to "Tidy things up". That means to clean things up. We thought this license plate was cute.
Now on the "Apartment" page we've talked about the importance of the heater units. We saw this couple moving and taking along with them their heater unit. See, we told you it was important!
These guys are all over the place ...METER MAIDS! Parking is expensive! We paid $1 just for a 15 minute stop. We talked with this guy for a while and if they tow a car it's nearly $200 to pick it up. If you let the meter expire, it's $12 and then if you've been ticketed for the $12 fine and they come back and you're still there, tack on another $40.
Ward Christmas Picnic
In New Zealand the Wards (LDS Church Groups) have picnics for Christmas vs. meeting in the cultural hall and having a dinner. Can you blame them? Remember, it's the middle of the summer down here! This year our Ward Christmas Picnic was on the 10th of December at the main park in Wellington down by the bay. It was a lot of fun and lots of good food to eat!
Here's the bishopric working on the BBQ aided by a couple of the youth. Bishop Howard is on the left, Brother Rawiri in the middle and Brother Vailea.
That's a ton of sausage. Here you take a sausage, wrap it in a piece of bread with onions and tomato sauce and eat away. You could eat a few before becoming exhausted!
This sister and her family were really into what was going on! Her entire family had a great time!
While there, this gentlemen in the santa hat came up to me and asked "have you been forgiven for your sins?" I told him that I had and that I felt pretty good about where I was in life. Boy did that open up the conversation. Needless to say, he was not with the Ward group for the party, but it was fun chatting with him!
Cricket
Ok, during the fall and winter you have Rugby! During the spring and summer you have Cricket. Don't even ask me how to describe this game! All I know is that you have to have all the right equipment including uniform (pants and all) and that the game can go on for a couple days. You score something like wickets and there can be as many as 200 + scores. I owe everyone a little research (very little) on the topic of Cricket so stay tuned!
Here's an example of a player all decked out in his batting gear. He has to stop the ball from getting past him and hitting the wickets (three of them behind where he stands if he were at bat).
Here's a team about ready to take the field! You can see the three wickets sticking up from the ground about 1/3 of the way from the right side of the photo.
The batter is ready to defend the wickets you can see behind him!
The pitcher runs forward and throws the ball at the batter who can pretty much hit it anywhere he can!
Here you can see that the pitcher has released the ball as he's run forward!
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Everything below this line was posted prior to 2012
Fishing
Fish is a major staple here in Wellington. Being surrounded by water that should be no surprise to anyone! In our brief time here we've seen fishing in three different ways and we've tried to show tow of them below....
When we made our little trip over to Eastbourne we pulled off into a parking lot that seemed to have a lot of activity. We followed the people and they were ALL headed to this fishing boat.
Next to the dock was this sign indicating the prices for the day's catch. When they say "Fresh Today", they were not kidding!
We took a closer look and you can see the tubs full of fish. They prepare the fish right there on the middle slab and there was a tub loaded with nothing but fish head remains. I was surprised not to see any seagulls nearby. We came back about an hour later and the boat was gone. All that was remaining was a red sign..."Sold Out".
For those that don't like the commercial type of fresh fish, you can always resort to the old fashion way of catching the fish on your own. We watched for about 10 minutes and saw no success. Perhaps there's more than casting and catching???
Did you know that in New Zealand, like Austrailia and England, they drive on the left (wrong) side of the road? This is a major difference. To get away with it, they make all the cars smaller so that there's less chance of hitting each other. Here's our car in the shop of course. The first day we went to drive, the battery was dead and we had to have Sterling fix it at his "Garage". The picks below don't really do driving justice. You pull in front of each other all the time. And did I say that everything is different? The windshield wipers are where the signal change should be and the signal change is where the wipers were. You'd ought to see all the cars with missing side mirrors from having them knocked off. The streets are super narrow and everyone hugs the center line because they don't want to hit the wing mirrors of parked cars. Here are a couple pics to show you the fun...
Shopping
Have I said that it's super expensive over here. It doesn't really matter what it is, but it costs a ton. I don't know how the general public makes ends meat. Let me list just a few that have caught our eye...
Tennis balls - US = $2.99 and NZ = $12.99
Burger King Meal - US = $6 and NZ = $10
Bread - US = $3 and NZ = $5
Merrills I Wear - US $65 and NZ $199
UnderArmour T-Shirt - US $20 and NZ $38
Eggs - US $1.50 and NZ $4.00
Gas - US $3.50 and NZ $8.00
I could for sure go on and on but it is what it is. We do most of our grocery shopping at "Pack-n-Save" which is the food discounter. Here's a tour of the inside and I won't make comment...
Church
Church here is nearly the same as back in Denver. Here's our chapel and it looks somewhat like any other building. It's also the Stake Center. There are similar buildings around the area. We attend the Wellington Ward of the Wellington Stake. We had Ward Conference the month we arrived. One thing different, after the meetings they have a get together where everyone brings food and all stay and socialize. It was pretty fun and what a spread they put on. Oh, I forgot to say that the buildings are really cold on the inside!
School Uniforms
Students have a dress code here in New Zealand. In this example of the young ladies at early morning seminary, you can see two different schools and skirts with sweater or jacket
Hail & Snow
It's not supposed to hail and snow in Wellington. The snow you see below greeted us on August 15th (remember that we're in the southern hemisphere so it is winter) but it hadn't snowed in Wellington for over 50 years. They called it a "Once in a Lifetime Experience".
