Sunday, we were in Wellington, New Zealand. It is the capital of the country and it is situated on the south coast of the North Island. Our excursion was called "Te Papa & Zealandia Eco experience".
Te Paps is short for " The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa" which is New Zealand's national museum.
Zealandia is a the world's first fully fenced ecosanctuary with a 500 year vision to restore the area as closely as possible to the pre-human state.
the moon setting in the early morning
first light of sunrise
then some of the higher clouds took on color
2 ferries in the bay. Most of the ferries go to the south island of New Zealand
along coastline of the bay in early morning light.
Wellington in the distance
A freighter at the docks
Where we will dock.
A tug to assist us if needed
Tour and shuttle buses waiting
the main stadium sits across the road. the play rugby, soccer, cricket here. I holds about 34,000.
Logs waiting to be shipped are on the wharves.
First stop on excursion was Zealandia , and ecosanctuary working towards having same animals an plant as prior to Polynesian arrival. There was only one mammal - a small bat is native to New Zealand, Many birds and reptiles lived here pre-human times.
Some of the mammals that changed New Zealand - rats, dogs opossums, cats etc. brought by early settled arriving here There have special animal-proof fencing around the entire 500+ acre sanctuary.
Our group starting out on the trails
One of the small lakes
Cormorants in a tree on the waters edge
cormorant surfacing after dive
more cormorants on the near shore of the lake
a Takahe bird
A pair of Takahe, one preening the other
Our guide telling us about one of the plants
a Tuatare is the only known species of the genre Maurisaurus. We were told that it has a third eye in the crest on the back of it’s head.
a sign posted where they could normally been seen
a Kaka bird
a Kaka bird
a Kaka bird feeding from a nectar feeder
heading back out to the bus
Then we went to the National Museum of New Zealand
a video screen showing us some of what we would see
skeletons of ancient Moas birds
and ancient eagle like bird
stuffed kiwi birds
a Maori canoe
another Maori canoe
back to the ship
a cargo ship docked next to us
piles of logs on the wharves
a tug assisting us away from the pier
a ferry in the distance
a cold front blew through just as we were about to leave. 3 0-40 mph winds made it tricky for us to get out of the harbor.
sailing away from windy Wellington
the clouds lowered around us and the wind increased.
pilot boat coming to take pilot off ship once we were out of the bay
Winds were to high for me to go outside to watch for sunset so I watched from the Crows Nest room
rough seas ahead
there was no sunset to ne seen
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