Arriving on the North Island

January 28

Sam:

This morning we drove to Picton, the town that we were taking the ferry from. The town was pretty big but still seemed quaint to me. We were starting to get hungry, so we picked up some fish and chips from a local fast food place for lunch. We drove to the ferry and I was a bit surprised that we waited in a long line to get on the ferry that wasn’t even moving, but dad told me it was normal so we ate our lunch while we were waiting.

Charlotte:

We got on the ferry and we parked inside. Then we went to find seats. Sam and I went into the theatre room to watch a movie, but Mom and Dad did not come with us. The movie was called “National Treasure,” and it was a good movie.

After the movie, we went on the boat deck. It was very windy. Then the boat arrived in Wellington (the capital of New Zealand) after our three and a half hour ferry ride.

We didn’t want to stay in Wellington, so Dad drove to Porirua. We found a campsite by the water where Dad and I met a huge dog and its owner. When it sat down, it was as tall as me (not kidding). I climbed a tree and that was fun because it had lots of hand holds. Then we slept after having dinner.

January 29

Sam:

After breakfast we went to McDonald’s for a snack and the free WiFi. In New Zealand it is hard to find free WiFi, so we use it whenever we can. We got some milkshakes, then Dad went to the store next door to get a SIM card because Mom’s was running out of data and we got a pretty good deal (10GB for $20). We then drove to where we were staying overnight at, Whanganui. It is a culture-rich town with lots of murals and sculptures.

Charlotte:

The first place we went was Virginia Park where we saw a “winter garden.” It had all of the flowers that they had in the winter. It was so cool and pretty. Some of the flowers were the kind we have in summer! We even saw baby pineapples growing. They were so cute!

Then we went on a lake walk. On the lake walk we saw lots of different birds, like swans and ducks. It was a pretty long walk but it was fun because there was lots of room to run and play and many of the ducks followed us.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Dad:

The Virginia Beach Aviary is a free Aviary hosting around 400 birds of 32 different species. It doesn’t have anyone charging admission or looking after it, you just walk right in! There were a few different compartments where the birds were separated. I think they used it to rehabilitate and take care of injured birds as well.

We had a great time trying to get the cockatoos to talk and play. Sam and Charlotte were able to get them to talk and I was able to play a game of fetch with one of them too. After playing catch with a rock for about 15 minutes I went to the other side of the cage to see the other cockatoos but he was following me! Charlotte attempted to play catch with the rock but he was not interested. So I came back and we played catch with the rock again until it was time to go.