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| Oriental Bay, Wellington Harbour |
We skirted around the Miramar peninsular.......past Scorching Bay where we went rock pooling with my cousin SL and his children.......
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| Scorching Bay |
heading to Worser Bay (on the right).....the far point of land on the left hand side is Pencarrow Head.....where we cycled to just the day before.....
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| Pencarrow Head & Worser Bay |
before heading back across to Days Bay and finally (for us) onto Somes Island.....seemingly PLONKED, in the middle of Wellington's horseshoe harbour......
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| Somes Island, Wellington Harbour |
Somes Island has been a very important little island in New Zealand's history......in 1860 it was designated for human quarantine purposes, but no facilities were built.....in 1872 the arrival of the England saw sleeping and living quarters hastily constructed after 16 passengers had died onboard due to an outbreak of disease.....any passengers deemed to be fit after six weeks on the island, were able to leave. Over the next 47 years many other vessels had their passengers quarantined on the island due to various diseases like whooping cough, typhoid fever, measles, mumps, influenza, and small pox.....
Somes was recognised as an ideal place to also quarantine animals, and in 1889 was formally designated.....in 1893 the newly formed Ministry of Agriculture set up a stock facility..... this prevented diseases such as foot and mouth, swine fever, rabies, blue tongue, and Q fever being introduced into NZ......
The quarantine station closed in 1995 and has recently been opened to the public as a nature reserve......being rodent free, it is being allowed to revert back to its native flora and fauna....it has some amazing birdlife, and the native tuatara has recently been reintroduced to the island.......as soon as you land on the island, you are debriefed.......and your bags have to been searched for any possible pests.......and even seeds.
After our debriefing and with strict instructions to leave absolutely nothing on the island, we took a gentle stroll up the central hill where we could see the whole of Wellington Harbour.......
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| Wellington Harbour from Somes Island |
From this vantage point, we were able to get a better idea of how far we rode our bikes on the coast road to Pencarrow Head the day before.......all along the base of these hills across the water, from the furthest left all the way to the point......wow......that's a long way for little legs......to the far right of the picture is one of NZ's large inter-island ferries .....although it looks very small in this picture.......
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| Wellington Harbour from Somes Island |
After a wander around the island admiring the spectacular views......and a snack stop......we headed back to the wharf......no, not this old unstable vintage one......
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| Looking towards Petone & the Hutt Valley |
a new modern one just along.....to be collected by the ferry.......
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| East by West Ferry |
and taken back to Queens Wharf in Wellington City Centre......
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| Queens Wharf, Wellington |
Queens Wharf is quite a happenin' place in the City Centre......loads of bars and restaurants to refresh and refuel at......overlooking the harbour......especially on a gloriously sunny day.....but glorious day as it was, we were not tempted to stop on this occasion......we had other plans already booked.......
So zippity-do-day, we zoomed off home for a quick dinner and bathtime/bedtime routines for the Little Lad and Little Miss......and then Grandpa and I zipped off down the road with Big Lad and Big Miss to K and D's for a surprise spot of clay bird shooting in the quickly falling dusk......
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| Big Lad Clay Bird Shooting - Big Miss Pulling |
Wow it's hard......Big Lad, Big Miss and I had never tried this before.......with us all taking turns, and the light fading fast, we only had a taster........so I'm sure we'd like another go sometime.......unfortunately Big Miss didn't manage to hit any of her "birds".......I managed to clip one of mine.......but Big Lad smashed 3 out of 4 "birds".......an absolute superb shot......and it was almost dark for his last one! Thanks K and D for letting us have a go....it was brill!!!
Another fab day all round.....thanks everyone!!!
-xx-
Hello to you! Oh my, your blog is delightful! I smiled as soon as I saw your colourful header and then just drenched myself in your gorgeous sunny photographs! So lovely to discover you in Blogland, and thank you muchly for visiting mine and leaving such a lovely comment.
ReplyDeleteLove Julia x x x