A WEEK IN WELLYWOOD

The rest of the holiday weekend involved walking around spooky, misty lakes in the rain, bathing in many more hot thermal pools and a huge, gooey chocolate cake that Jo had baked for Geraint's birthday. It all came to an end too soon (the weekend and the cake) and we returned to Wellington where we stayed on with the Average Family Breese for a week, planning the next stage of our assault on their beautiful country.

Wellington is New Zealand's fabulous capital city, set around a crescent shaped harbour and many smaller picturesque bays. The approach by sea is stunning - beyond the high-rises of the central district, wooden houses are terraced neatly between trees on the hillsides that rise behind the city. In recent times Wellington has stamped its place firmly on the world map as the home of New Zealand's film industry. Peter Jackson calls Wellington home and the success of his films and other blockbusters have earned the city its nickname of Wellywood. While the family returned to their daily routines, we spent our time in the city and loved to wander up and down the windy waterfront, dotted with art, sculptures and stones inscribed with quotations that appeared in the most unexpected places.

Unfortunately, my first visit was at the dentist for an emergency appointment which cost the equivalent of three months travel fares for the hour that I was captive in the chair. Half a dozen patients had come and gone from the room next door in the meantime and I thought that we'd have to get oxygen, or a chair at least, for Marc by the look on his face when we were presented with the bill. Still numb (from the shock of the cost) we took the famous red cable car up to the Botanic Gardens overlooking the city and walked over the hill and down into the Civic Centre and to the Parliamentary Buildings where we joined a guided tour of the new Beehive Office and also the grand old Government Building next door.

Our guide was Bill and the first stop was the basement where he took great pride in telling us about the major construction works that had taken place in recent years to ensure that the building will withstand a major earthquake, ensuring continuation of Government in the event of a disaster. Huge shock absorbers of rubber and steel had been installed under the building and all the supporting concrete columns had a 20mm slice sawn out near the top so that the building now sits on the shock absorbers above the "Seismic Gap", which I couldn't resist slipping my hand into on the way out. Bill would not have been impressed if he'd seen me I'm sure. Next, we took part in a sitting in the chamber where we were afforded complete Freedom of Speech and immunity against any consequential arrest, slander or treason. I wasn't sure that complaining about the lack of reciprocal agreements between member states of the Commonwealth on dental charges would be covered, so I kept my own counsel.

We had made arrangements to visit the small island of Kapiti off the coastline of Paraparaumu, north of Wellington, for the Friday morning. Kapiti is another predator-free haven for native birds and is run by the Department of Conservation (DOC). As only a limited number can visit the island each day, DOC runs an on-line booking system where permits can be purchased and a quick call to one of the two boat operators licenced to land on Kapiti secures your transport there and back. A final check with the boat on the morning of the trip confirms whether sea conditions are right for the landing, as the arrangements for getting ashore can be a bit of an adventure in itself on some days. The day dawned and it was glorious so the sandwiches were made and extra camera batteries packed and Marc stood at the front door with Ed who was giving us a lift to the train as I telephoned the boat at the alloted time. It took a while for me to convince Ed and Marc that the sailing was cancelled as the forecast for the afternoon was not good, but Ed suggested a worthy alternative for a day's supply of sarnies and we caught the ferry across Wellington harbour to Days Bay then walked down the beach for a couple of miles until we got to Eastbourne and headed inland and up one of a maze of tracks up into Butterfly Creek into some of the most dense and lush bush we've seen in New Zealand.

By this time, we were starting to show fledgling signs of being twitchers, able to identify many native birdcalls and also some of the more common trees and ferns along with a bit of the history relating to them. Take the Ponga, or famous NZ Silver Fern for example that grows up to 10 metres tall and would have been used by Maori as house posts. The 4 metre long fronds would have been used as waymarkers by warring or hunting parties moving silently through the bush in a long drawn out line. The first would have turned a frond over to reveal its white underside and the last man through turned it back again, leaving no trace of the trail.

The Average Family spoilt us rotten and took us out on many sightseeing and walking trips. One particularly enjoyable day out being a drive and walk through the Wairarapa to Cape Pallister on the wild and remote south easterly tip of North Island. We started with a walk to the amazing Putangirua Pinnacles - formed as silt and sand have been washed away over the years exposing huge columns of bedrock. A fabulous lunch followed in the Lake Ferry Inn where we enjoyed 'The Catch of the Day' and inadvertently bagged a heap of chocolate fish.

And so we waved the Breeses goodbye, promising to be back in a month and they promised us that they wouldn't change the locks in the meantime. Our Eastern Loop would take us up to Napier in Hawkes Bay and Gisborne in Poverty Bay, then off the beaten track around the East Cape, across the Bay of Plenty to Opotiki and Tauranga then onto Thames and the gorgeous Coromandel Peninsula before turning south to Rotorua and Taupo, calling at Paraparaumu for a couple of nights to have another go and Kapiti Island before retuning to Wellington just in time for the first rugby test between the All Blacks and Ireland. What luck eh ....