Petone and Wellington

We spent the past two weeks staying with and working for a woman in Petone, which is about 10-15 minutes from Wellington around the harbor.  We spent the time working in her garden- weeding mostly, also planting some trees and helping with the veggie garden.  She gardens organically, lots of composting/mulching and feeding the worms! We learned about some edible native plants and made some yummy salads and had fresh veggies.

Judith is a flute teacher and also plays in a Gamelan group, which is an Indonesian style of music. It's an ensemble of up to 20ish people playing different types of instruments, and singing.  We went to a recital at the music college for the gamelan class' final performance.

In our free time, we went into Wellington city, there is a popular huge (free) museum called Te Papa, there are tons of cafes/restaurants and lots of things to see.  It's the capital of NZ, and we also took a tour of the Parliament buildings. We also went to the Diwali Festival.

I told Chris that I'd like us to live in a proper 'city' once in our lives and I like Wellington.  

Produce at the city food market on a Sunday.

World of Wearable Art display at Te Papa-- really creative stuff, but kinda looks like Lady Gaga's closet.

Stalls at Diwali

watching performances at Diwali

Cuba St. bucket fountain

"the Beehive", part of Parliament

Chris LOVES modern art.

enjoying a sunny lunchtime in Oriental Bay, Chris and I were wearing jackets and scarves, lots of people swimming.

selfie with a troll at the Weta studios

botanical gardens

We rode over to the South Island on the ferry yesterday, and we are currently in Picton, working at a backpackers in exchange for beds.  We will be here for a few days and then we'll go somewhere else... not sure what our plans are at the moment. Lots of travelers around, a lot of people do fruit picking work.  

waiting to board the ferry, such a nice sunny day

hello, South Island!