We stopped briefly to enjoy the view near the beach. Almost immediately these little guys scurried over to greet us (they seemed to like our peanuts and raisins.)
Just 1 kilometre beyond Lake Rotopounamu is Lake Rotoaira, a much larger lake. The next photos were taken there. Apparently there used to be 2 ancient Maori dwellings there, but we couldn't find them. It is a very pretty area.
We stayed in a lovely B&B during our visit to Wellington. Wellington's streets are steep, narrow and winding and the people drive as if they are possessed! Roger negotiated the streets like a pro and, we agreed it was an interesting experiment, but we both prefer the flat, somewhat wider and straight streets of Hastings!!
When we arrived at the B&B we parked on the street near the garage...and then tried to find the house. This is the view that greeted us from the deck behind the garage.
The dark blue square at the bottom of the tram track is the front door of the B&B (it is a large, double door!!) Oh dear, this is NOT going to be fun.
It was scary enough that I actually climbed and descended the stairs on several occasions so as to avoid the tram ride. Good exercise, I told myself.
We drove around one of the peninsulas that are in the city of Wellington and stopped to eat lunch at a city icon called The Chocolate Fish. The restaurant is on one side of the road and most of the seating is on the other side of the road just next to the beach. This is the view from our table. Unfortunately, The Chocolate Fish will soon be going out of business; we were glad we were able to enjoy a meal and the view before it does.
We found a place to live! We are very excited and feel very lucky to have found such a nice place and it's only 4 blocks to my office. Our new address is: 306 Knight St, Hastings, Hawke's Bay 4122, New Zealand. We are in a very elegant part of town with many old, but beautifully restored homes. Come inside the gate and see where we're going to live.
This is the front patio. Just to the left, out of the picture, is the front door. The entry way is a small room with wooden parquet floor, and 1 and a half walls that are floor to ceiling glass. A very welcoming, sunny little room. Two of the walls in the entry way are the same color as the wrought iron patio table and chairs! Screaming blue. Notice the lavender bushes bordering the patio.
These beautiful, big, red roses are in front of the living room window (there are lots more roses that you can't see in this photo) and the lemon tree, that is currently loaded with lemons, is right in front of our bedroom window. The little bit of pavement you can see is a very narrow driveway that goes to our neighbors behind us; you can see their house here, too.
This "Big Dog" is a building in one of the little towns we drove through. To the right of the dog's nose you can just barely see the top of a similar building that was a sheep. Very cute!
Almost the end of the Suspension Bridge Hike. This dam is much bigger than it appears here and is covered with a thick carpet of emerald green grass. (Those little green bushes near the Y in the road are full grown, large trees.) You can't see the sheep but they were keeping the grass trimmed quite nicely.
