Greetings from Wellington - the place that seems like the skateboard capital of the world. You would not believe the number of folk that go around Wellington on a skateboard.
This morning we went on a "Seal Safari" which started off with a drive up to the highest point of Wellington so that we could admire the views - unfortunately Wellington had a lot of low cloud today so the views were not that good. This was along, what we thought at the time were some poor tracks (little did we know what was in store for us later) but fortunately we were in a 4WD vehicle. After we had been to the top there was only one way to go and as we all know that way is down - a most interesting drive on gravel
roads tracks that are a one in four gradient and with a manic driver. Once down from the hills then the fun really did begin as we were then "on the beach" in a manner of speaking with even more undulations. Eventually we arrived at the seal colony where they were ready and waiting for us:
There were about twenty or so seals there today but when it is winter that will growto something in the region of fifty with another colony of about 200 in the next bay.
We were able to get within about a couple of meters of the seals who did not seem the least bit bothered by our presence.
We had about half an hour around the colony before setting off back. Now for some reason best known to our guide/driver he decided to take us the scenic route close to the sea rather than higher up the beach. Well of course the inevitable happened and we got stuck
Fortunately were this happened was close where there were some locals who came and pulled us out!!
Our driver was a guy called Nathan Gray who only did this as a part time job as his full time job was a travel writer. He is considered as one of New Zealand's top travel writers and has written a book about his 4,000km walk along the Great Wall of China. He also has a degree in law and in politics.
The rest of the journey back was uneventful, fortunately.
Once back we then went to find the cable car to take us up to the Botanical Gardens. We felt a bit cheated by the cable car as it was not one that was suspended on a cable but one that was "driven" by a cable but one that used a cable to "power" it.
Once at the top of the Botanical Gardens we then had a vey pleasant walk back down.