Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Hans and Paul look out over Canberra

We wanted to get a good look at the capital city of Australia, which is where our host family live. They took us up to Black Mountain, which is close to the city centre. On the top of the mountain (compared to the mountains in Wellington it is only a hill, but nevertheless) there is a large communication tower with viewing decks, and is a very popular spot for people to get their bearings of Canberra.
Here we are at the bottom of the tower.
Behind us you can see Lake Burley Griffin, which is a created lake named for the architects of this planned city. Compared to our last city, Wellington, this city is so spread out and flat!
Canberra is known as the Bush Capital, behind us here is a large area of bush, mostly gum trees, and behind that you might be able to see more of the urban and suburban areas of the city.
Behind us here you can see the city centre of Canberra. A beautiful day to enjoy a beautiful view.

Saturday, February 23, 2013

We visit the wildlife sanctuary in Wellington

Here is an other supplement to our trip to New Zealand


From Kelburn, we went for a walk through the suburbs to a wildlife sanctuary. We stopped to get a photo with the hills behind us. Wellington certainly has lots of hills.
At the wildlife sanctuary we saw lots of birds that only live in New Zealand. We also finally saw a Tuatara. Tuataras look like lizards, but they are from a much older family that is a remnant of the dinosaurs. He was a big fellow, about 30 centimetres long. Certainly big enough to gobble up small backpackers, so we didn't want to get too close. The name "Tuatara" means "Peaks on the back" in the Maori language. If you look closely, you can see the peaks on the back of this tuatara.

Somewhere, we have photos of us with some baby tuataras that are much more our size, but that camera is still packed in a box with our host family's luggage.

Friday, February 22, 2013

We ride on the Wellington Cable Car

Here is a supplement to our trip to New Zealand


This is as the car leaves the station and goes through a tunnel.
The cable car connects the town centre of Wellington, which is at sea level, with the suburb of Kelburn and the city's Botanical Gardens, which is on a hilltop overlooking the city. Here we are approaching the top. It was a short, but fun ride.
At the top, they have a museum telling the history of the cable car. It has an old car that kids can have their photo taken on, but we found one more our size.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Hans and Paul in Australia.

New Zealand and Australia are close neighbours, but there are many differences between them. One difference is the wildlife. New Zealand has many birds, but not very much more native fauna. Australia has lots of native fauna, including spiders. 
 
Look, a big big spiders.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Hi Australia!

We were very sorry to leave New Zealand, but our host family had to move back to their home country of Australia. 
 
It was great to travel inside the cabin of the aeroplane where we could see out of the window, instead of our usual travel which is inside our travel box, cosy and safe but dark and no view.
 Hey look we are nex to Australia!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Hans and Paul at the World Of Wearable Arts Museum

We weren't allowed to take photos of the amazing costumes at this museum, which doesn't make for great blogging, but we will describe it to you as best we can. 
WoW (World of Wearable Arts) is a huge festival of art and fashion held in New Zealand every year. Costumiers and artists (and many people are both) enter their designs into this event which is like the Oscars of costume design. There are huge fashion shows to display the creations. The museum that houses these works is in Nelson. We loved seeing the innovative costumes made from fabric, paper, plastics and even hedgehogs. 
There was a no camera rule in the galleries, but no rule in the washrooms, so here we are!

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Hans and Paul in Antarctica

 Well, sort of Antarctica. We visited the city of Christchurch in New Zealand, which is the airport where many Antarctic expeditions leave from. Near to the airport there is an amazing Antarctic museum and discovery centre. 
There were so many fun things to do. We saw Little Penguins, and then we went into a special wind chamber where an Antarctic storm is simulated. It was so cold! We really had to hang on, the wind was very strong.