In Wellington we decided it was best to get a local guide to tour us around. He took us up to this viewpoint called Mount Victoria Lookout where you could see the whole bay area. Wellington became the Capital of New Zealand in 1865, replacing Auckland.It was bit of a stormy cloudy day, so it made for some pretty awesome pictures with the sun poking through!A bit of a close up view of the waterfront area.A little history of how Wellington got its name.This is Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington.The entrance to the harbor with the original lighthouse up top and the newer one down below.Another ferry like the one we came here on. It was more of a cruise ship!As you would expect, they love their soccer (football) team!The government went to great lengths to make this Miramar Peninsula predator free, so the indigenous species could thrive.Our guide took us to see the Weta, which is a museum of the characters and such of the Hobbit movies. The name Weta in New Zealand refers to two main concepts: a group of giant, ancient endemic insects and the world famous creative and special effects film studios named after them.Like this cute guy!This is an assortment of their swords and other weapons.Joni and her little friend!Jan and Lane fending for their lives!Just hanging out with my new friend!Just in case you think all this is real and you need it!Up the street a bit is Stone studios where the magic happens!Now back to reality, here’s a nice bay view.There was a lot of really different modern architecture.As like everywhere here, the old mixed in with the new!A little shop humor!We’re boarding the famous Wellington Cable Car that will take us up to a viewpoint overlooking the city.On our way. You can see here it’s a pretty steep climb.As you can see, it’s a pretty great view from up there!The trees and foliage here are pretty tropical!Another view of a cable car descending. The locals use this to commute to and from work.This is the new Parliament buildingAnd this is the old one. We all decided, as have many of the locals, that this one is much nicer and “Parliament like”!And a frog with his own sliding board!I wonder if this is the Mayor of Wellington?We went to the Museum of New ZealandThe next six pictures are Boulders and their descriptions representing the Maori people and their heritage..Maori sayings in their language and the English translationThese hand carved boats were amazing! Such beautiful workmanship!Such intricate details!That’s a lot of manpower!Predecessor to our modern day catamaran and/or party boat?Various oars, also hand carved.Here are some examples of their various lashings used in the construction of their boats.More of the beautiful carvings, very imaginative!This is a Maori Meeting house and is sacred, so no one was allowed inside. I’m not even sure I was supposed to take outside pictures!More exquisite carvings!Great taxidermy on this Albatross! They’re huge!A photo of the Maori tribe from 1887.A bull made from corned beef cans.A Britten 1000 motorcycle made by Britten Motorcycles in New Zealand 1992.The bottom of the world globe shows just how close New Zealand is to Antartica!
We got a very early start to get to the train on time! Here’s a shot of the sunrise on our way out of Christchurch on the train.Beautiful countryside views on the way!Our trip included some excellent waterfront views!A black swan.Arriving in beautiful Picton!We found this interesting whaling museum in town.This is a unique chess set that was confiscated from a person in 1989. The set is made from whalebone and black coral. It was made in Tonga.This a model of the whaling ship Orca. You can see the harpoon canon on the bow of the shipWhale bones.This is the skull from an Orca, those are some pretty impressive pearly whites!This is a Fresnel lens used in all lighthouses of the day. I learned about this by reading a novel written by Jimmy Buffett, “A Salty Piece of Land”!This is the Picton Borough Council Mayoral Chair.Back out exploring town, this was a pretty ornate wrought iron fence!Here we are, waiting for the ferry to Wellington.Our tickets included food and all beverages! CHEERS!Views around the harbor, waiting to leave for Wellington.This is a huge ferry! Very similar to the one we took in Greece. It felt more like a cruise ship, aside from the cars and trucks on the deck below.Here’s your Costco Leg of Lamb on the hoof!The ferry slips.Another ferry leaving the harbor.On our way to Wellington!Look at all the rental caravans!Kind of a weird wallpaper for a ship, a forest?
Sunrise from the front yard of our VRBO. Today will be exciting; Scotty is picking us up this morning to take us to his family’s Sheep farm! His dad, mom, Scotty and his brother run it. This is a 6th generation farm!This is the VRBO that Jan found for us. It’s a beautiful house right on the water and was very comfortable!This is the farm. i don’t remember the actual size of it, but it’s huge!That’s Scotty, Jan, Lane and Joni in the picture. He told us this was the spot on the farm where he got married.A group photoTwo of the three working dogs they use. These boys do the field herding together. They do not bark, they just follow their orders and do their job This is their third dog. Her job is to get the sheep into the chute to go to shearing. She does bark since the sheep are already corralled. We have a couple of videos but unfortunately, I couldn’t get them to upload properly. If you want to see them work, just Google sheep herding dogs. It’s very fun and fascinating to watch!When they’re off duty they are very affectionate. She loved belly rubs!Rounding up a stray sheep.More belly rubs, please!The boys have them corralled, now her turn to get them in th chute.In line to be sheared.Look at those eyelashes! The Kardashians would be jealous!The boys job is done, ready for a ride.Scotty’s mom is the shearer along with the hired hands. Here she’s explaining the process.Some of the shearing tools.The shearing tool.A bundle of wool with the awards it has won. They produce Merino wool exclusively and have earned many awards!Many top garment producers around the world use their wool.Here she’s showing us the fine threads they get from this wool.Back outside, this is their family greenhouse.A scarecrow of sorts!They also have a few pet sheep. We think they aged out of being useful for wool, so now they live their retired life with treats and pets!Grapevines over their back patio.We had a lovely Crumpets and tea that Scotty’s mom prepared. She shared that her sons are encouraging them to retire and travel, but she isn’t interested in doing that because this is her office! Why leave it to travel!We’re back in the van to go to lunch.More sheep on our way. Interesting fact: sheep outnumber people in New Zealand 5 to 1! AND they’re delicious (the sheep not the people!)Scotty took us to this winery where we had great wine and absolutely the best lamb shanks we’ve ever eaten. Sorry, no pictures, I was busy eating!
That’s the end of our adventures in the Christchurch area.
On day 4 of our grand adventures with Scotty, he took us to Kaikoura where we boarded a boat to go whale watching. This area is known for this activity, so we were very excited to go! And the weather was perfect too!We’re about to board and start this adventure!This high tech monitor shows our boat without the water, so we can see the terrain of the bottom and see what our depth is.Sorry this is a bit blurry, but its showing what whales we might see.The captain suspects there’s whale activity nearby so she’s scanning with some kind of sonar device to determine what direction to head.She’s done with that, now she’ll move the boat towards it.While searching, we got to see an Albatross! According to our commentator they are rarely seen! Another screen shot of our boat, showing a depth of 745 meters or 2444 feet.Here’s a closer shot of the Albatross. An Albatross’s wingspan can be 6.5′ to 11,5′ while a seagull will be about 3.5′.Thar she blows! In short order, we spotted a whale, and not just any whale! it was a Sperm Whale! According to our guide, who’s been researching whales for 15 years, this is very rare! This whale can stay submerged for hours and only surfaces for about a half hour, we were very lucky to witness this occasion!That protrusion you see sticking out of the water is not a dorsal fin, it’s just where the backbone drops down towards its tail fin. These whales are the largest whales that have teeth and can be 52 to 62 feet long for males and 35 to 40 feet for females!Another interesting fact she told us is that the blowhole on sperm whales isn’t centered, it’s slightly to the left.What a special day: to see both an Albatross and a Sperm whale on the same trip!I wasn’t able to get it, but luckily Joni got this parting shot as the whale dove back down!Here’s a clearer representation of this massive creature. According to our guide they were hunted extensively years ago because of the abundance of oil in their head, up to 500 gallons!That sighting was only about 2 hours in on what was supposed to be a 4 hour trip, but there was a medical emergency onboard, so we had to head back in early! What an incredible trip! It was unfortunately cut short but the good news was they refunded our money 100%! Fantastic adventure and FREE! Hopefully the poor sole who had the medical emergency was okay in the end.They added an observation deck on top of this water tank, pretty cool!One last view of the bay then back home for the day!
The end of our adventure for day 4, coming up, Day 5……..
We’re on the road again with Scotty, on our way to visit the beautiful town of Akaroa.Our route took us through this tunnel. I’m sorry, I still think we’re on the wrong side of the road!The trip there was very scenic.This was kind of bizarre , they planted these trees in a perfect square! It’s called a forestry block, pine trees for future harvesting. This particular one is called the Damn Square of Akaroa.These are our first glimpses of their beautiful bay.My obligatory shot of a pier, love the shadow!Interesting tree.Every fisherman’s rules!Downtown Akaroa, beautiful flowers everywhere.We were intrigued with The Giants House. After a short debate about trudging up the hill to see it, we decided to go for it. After all, we came half way around the world to be here!The artist, Josie Martin, who has lived here for 26 years found some shards of broken tiles or pottery while digging for a garden and she had the idea of creating some artwork from it. That plus when she began, the town and neighbors donated more. It expanded exponentially from there! She calls it The Happiest Garden in the World!Jan and Joni “relaxing” on this tiled cement bench!The more we explore and look, the weirder it gets!I warned you! The farther you go the weirder it gets!These two are Joni’s favorites, NOT!Lane about to be eaten by a huge rabbit!Jan and Joni catching a little shade.I’m not sure exactly what this is representing?!?Upward and onward!Why not, an octopus next to an elephant!There was actually a nice view of the bay from up there.Yes, VERY steep stairs and no railings! They obviously don’t have OSHA here! BTW, I did not go down them!The hands have it!Those non OSHA approved stairs from down below.For a little normalcy intervention, some pretty flowers!And back to the non normal!More Topiary.Broken wine bottles? Use them too!Sure, why not!Jan making friends again! No, we’re not adopting him!Dove Sentries?Hopscotch anyone?This looks to be a work in progress.Yes, these are real flowers!Well, back down to reality!
Welcome back to the Casa de Ziegler II Blog! I know it’s been quite a while since we posted anything but we’re back now! We hope you enjoy our new adventure abroad in beautiful Australia and New Zealand. We spent the month of March there with our dear friends/family Joni Berg and Lane Hammond.
Sydney, Australia
Our Walking Tour of Downtown Sydney
This is the Garrison Church in Sydney, one of the many beautiful stone churches there.This bridge arch was pretty cool with the vines growing right out of the stone walls on either side!The message on the side of this rental bike cracked us up!This was a walkway along our walking tour.I saw this beautifully done drawing on our tour and, of course, I HAD to take a picture!Just a typical Post Box!Another church and great old world architecture,One of many wine shops.Open air dining abounds!This gigantic Cruise ship was in port!The skyline was impressive with the mixture of old world buildings and modern, very progressive design, architecture!The Contemporary Art Museum.And of course the very iconic Opera House! (More of this later on in this post!)The girls with the Opera House in the distance.One of the many (MANLY?!?) ferries available.An Australian White Ibis, a flightless bird.Cameras, cameras and more cameras! Even Australia has Big Brother watching!Some of the beautiful landscaping that was everywhere!A Silver Gull, common in Australia.LOTS of steps from the pier up to the street above!More beautiful flowers!We’re now in the Royal Botanic Garden in Sydney. This was an unusual art exhibit.Lane and Joni enjoying the Gardens.A view of the famous Sydney Harbour Bridge from the gardens.I zoomed in with my 300mm to catch the crazy people who choose to walk over the top of the bridge! They actually pay money for this honor!!This exotic bird blends in quite well don’t you think?This tourist lady asked Joni to take her picture and of course she obliged! As you can also see in this picture is a view of the opera house you don’t usually see, the front side where you enter the building!Beautiful VERY old tree!This was a very “interesting” sculpture!Another very old tree!This wrought iron structure was pretty cool!This was constructed using smooth stones and cement.The Royal Government House (Estate, Mansion, ETC!!)Another view of the downtown architecture from the Gardens.Jan especially liked the “LEGO” building on the right!These trees are massive!Another impressive old government building near the gardens,
