February 17-25: Wellington and the Kapiti coast

On February 17 I was on the Intercity bus at 8:00 a.m., en route to Paekakariki. The bus stopped at Palmerston North and there I was met by a friend of a woman I garden with in Wolfville. It blows me away that there are so many NZ connections in my wee home town of 4,000.

I’d selected Paekakariki as it was close to Wellington, and my airbnb host was close to the beach and the train station. It turned out to be perfect. My room was huge and I had a glorious view of the Tasman Sea. And my airbnb host was full of enthusiasm for the area, and also for a new educational program she is involved in developing. Hearing about that was a bonus. Paekakariki turned out to offer much more than I expected; not only did it have an extraordinary beach, but also a park with several walking trails. But I had booked only two days there.

Paekakariki train station

Paekakariki main strip

Beach and walking path near 

my bnb in Paekakariki

The first day my Ottawa friends Jo and Richard, who were staying close by, gave me a tour of Wellington. They’d once lived there. Wellington is a spectacular city, but everything in NZ is! It’s relatively small, the population is only about 200,000. Like Auckland, it’s surrounded by water and the waterfront area has been very well planned,, and developed. Lots of walking and cycle paths, and of course many restaurants and cafes. Richard took us on a tour around some of the bays (there are many), up to the top of Mount Victoria, where you get a 360 degree view of the city, and then into the city where we walked along Cuba Street (the “hip” pedestrian shopping/dining area) and then over to the waterfront area. We ended the day with a hurried visit to the wonderful botanical gardens, as we were running out of time.

Wellington harbour

More of the harbour area

Waterfall sculpture on Cuba Street

The next day I took a walk in Queen Elizabeth park (beside Paekakariki) and then headed back to Wellington to see Te Papa, the city’s highly regarded museum. It was very impressive, but I was rather overwhelmed by all the displays and think I learned more from the Auckland museum.

Te Papa from the exterior

Inside Te Papa

On February 20, Jo and Richard picked me up and I became their guest at the house they rented for a month in Paraparaumu, a community not far north of Paekakariki on the Kapiti Coast. They were terrific. With them I:
- did a number of beach walks,
- went to the Saturday market in Paraparaumu Beach,
- took a day trip to Kapiti Island, the nature reserve that has been developed to provide a home to a number of endangered species,
- got to met some of Jo(sephine)’s friends from her time at Statistics NZ, and some of Richard's family,
- walked through a grove of nikau palms, the only native palm in NZ,
- saw the movie Selma, in a theatre that felt more like a living room (these Kiwis know how to do it, alcohol is even permitted).

Weka (flightless bird) on Kapati island

Another flightless bird, the Pukeko

Nikau palm grove

The movie theatre! So comfy

And today (Feb. 25) they drove me to the airport for my flight to Dunedin, fitting in a stop at Zealandia, a nature reserve in the heart of Wellington. A good deal of effort is now being put into undoing the damage done in the 1800s by removing so much of the country’s forests, and introducing predators previously unknown in NZ.

My time in the north island is over; another adventure awaits me in the south island.