14/03/2026
Yvonne Jansen Von has been giving me a taste of Horowhenua, Kāpiti, and Wellington on the North Island of Aotearoa!
We took the dogs for a walk at Waitārere Beach, followed by a real strawberry ice cream at Lewis Farms.
Then a trip into Wellington to go to the Wēta Workshop, up to the Mount Victoria Lookout, and finally to Te Papa Museum.
Didn’t realise how many other movies Wēta have been a part of!! Rampage, King Kong, Godzilla and many many others, too may to list here!
Yesterday we did the Kiwi Night Experience at Ngā Manu Nature Reserve which was amazing, they came so close we could have touched them. No photos allowed unfortunately, but understandable. Saw a female and a male and the female was an arms length away from me!! That was bloody awesome and was on a high.
Today we drove down to Kāpiti to check out the Ōtaki Kite Festival which was pretty cool to see and I saw a REAL WĒTA that a guy had rescued from being squashed!
I am back to Sydney tomorrow but I already know I want to do next time. The Wēta Workshop in Auckland, Hobbiton, and Rotorua and then obviously at some stage the South Island and if I go at the right time of year go down to Stewart Island to attempt to see the Aurora Australis. 😁. Oh and I forgot. Zealand is!
Here is a photo dump of the last week. Been too busy to do it each day.