Makara

Makara is a sleepy little beach town right outside of Wellington.  My Kiwi friend Liz tells me this is where all the high schoolers come to smoke and drink and do other things they shouldn't be doing.

walking at Red Rocks (near Wellington)

Yay, the Zoo!

We went to the Wellington Zoo and saw some great animals

A trip to the Botanic Gardens

I had some time to kill in town today so I took a ride up to the Botanic Gardens here in Wellington...



This is the Carter Observatory and Planetarium:



What a view!


This is the cable car I took back down into the city


This is a 100 year old cable car in the cable car museum, apparently people used to sit outside the car... which seems crazy to me.


On the way back to town, safely inside.

Wellington's beaches

Amy and I went for a drive yesterday around some of the beachier suburbs of Wellington: Scorching Bay, Island Bay, Lyle Bay, etc... We saw the boat from King Kong rusting in the harbor near the airport and lots of beautiful blue water.

The island of Island Bay fame:This is right behind the airport, you can see a plane coming in for a landing:

This is Wellington as viewed from out past the airport:
Some cool swimming platforms for diving in the bay, we wished we had brought our "togs":