Well, we've made it to the North Island and a lot earlier than we had planned for our epic adventure around New Zealand. The reason for our early arrival is due to Robbie Williams who decided to do concerts in Wellington and Auckland but not the South Island, so, when your wife has had this particular concert on her bucket list for a long time you change your plans! To be honest, I was looking forward to the concert too and only around 15 meters from the stage we certainly had a great spot for a fantastic night in a, for a change, wind free Wellington city.
Having lived in the South Island for the last twelve years we no very little about the North Island so everything from here on in is new and we are quite determined to be proper tourists taking in the touristy attractions where we can and enjoying coffees etc wherever possible.
This particular entry covers out time in Porirua and Kaitoke Regional Park. Porirua was simply a place to stay near to the capital so that we could easily get to and from the concert......certainly not a tourist spot but it served a purpose! Four days there and it was time for a change of location and hopefully some peace and quiet, Kaitoke Regional Park here we come.
Kaitoke Regional Park is run by the Wellington City Council and is a beautiful location where some of the Lord of the Rings scenes from Rivendell were filmed. What is quite amazing is that without the signs showing you where aspects of the film were made you would never know as there is no damage at all left by the set and crew. The first image below is a small scale replica of one of the scenes but was added once the film crew had left. It's still very impressive so the original must have been huge! One slightly strange aspect to the park is that the gates close at 8pm and open at 8am so if you want to be out later or get out earlier then you need to leave your vehicle quite a walk from the site, almost caught us out on a couple of occasions but we did make it back in time.
I love Wellington and had hoped to do some calm, clear skies photography. No such luck as the day I had arranged to visit the capital it hammered down with rain! Did make for some interesting street photography though.
Last point to note about this part of our journey were some beautiful walks along the coast to see lighthouses perched in some of the most stunning coastline. No real possibility on this trip to get great images of early or late light.....but, I'll be back!
The replica archway from Lord of the Rings created in Kaitoke Regional Park
One of the stormy day landscapes from the coastal roads
Gorgeous little church that we spied when coming back from one of our coastal walks
Wet day in Wellington City. Canopies give great lines for an image.....and shelter from the rain!
A quick shot when crossing the road.....no-one even seems to notice photographers doing mad stuff in the city
Found the stage, just waited for the right actor to walk in.....cue, music man
Late afternoon light on the site at Kaitoke
Noticed the underside of these silver fern leaves and lit them with flash for something a little different
Not quite sure what these flowers are but there are carpets of them just off of the coastal roads
Artsy shot in Wellington City
Pencarrow Lighthouse, one I'll be back to at some point
Pencarrow Lighthouse and the Bike....found the owner relaxed on the other side of the lighthouse.