Our last day. A walk to Oriental Beach. Then, to a one-of-a-kind airport and home.

Update:  I just read that a 4.1 earthquake hit Wellington this afternoon (1-29-16) I have not heard about much damage. This is especially interesting because as part of our guided tour of the Beehive and Parliament Buildings, we were shown the earthquake protection devices in the basements of those buildings. They are also present below Te Papa.  

And there was an earthquake in Christchurch just recently. Wonder if we'll get one?  

Today is our last day in Wellington. We all feel a bit of regret. We have had a wonderful time here and Wellington is such a nice city. We felt at home immediately and now feel a bit sad to be leaving our new friend.  

The hotel is letting us check out late but we are all packed and ready to go to the airport around 1 p.m. There is plenty of time this morning for more exploration. 

We are headed to Oriental Beach. As usual, we'd love it if you came along to see the sights...

That Police boat does look like it means business, but don't you think it ought to be facing out for faster reaction time? 

Tourists are paddling their waka around the harbour.

Our view of more marina as we round the shore.  The beach is located directly below the church you see on the hill. 

It's a small beach but kid friendly. No surf at all.  

I'm showing you this view simply because I like how the church looks up there. 

A view of the other end of Oriental Beach and part of the city.

Amiri, always the climber, made it quickly to the top of this rope pyramid, next to the beach.

This retired tugboat near the beach is a restaurant believe it or not. It's not very glamorous from the outside, but they must think highly of their bill of fare, because it's quite pricey. We didn't get a change to eat there. We had a schedule to keep and wanted to try a special item elsewhere.

We head back along the wharf. We intend to go to a little hole in the wall Bahn Mi Korean sandwich place Allie scoped out.

On our way, Jeanne realized that a hill top, across the bay, was the scene of a very special moonrise that astro-photographer Mark Gee recorded back in Feb. of 2013. I wasn't able to zoom in enough to approximate his close-up view of the hill and the people, but I am close enough to give you a good idea of it. 

Here is his video:

This little sandwhich shop is on another narrow alley. Banh mi means bread I guess in Korean, but here it means a really good sandwich. 

This little shop which isn't even visible from the street does an enormous business during lunch hours. Look at the stacks ready for the rush that is to come soon. We were on the leading edge of the lunch wave and so didn't have to wait to get our baguette style treat. 

This shot was taken from the bench where we ate our sandwiches. The boys had sushi and meat pies instead of the sandwiches. This little square is popular as you can see with the business people who work in the surrounding buildings. We even had a keyboard player to entertain us. 

This is Latin for "Time Flies."

This clock is on the original Parliament building that we passed just after seeing the Beehive. The motto reminded lawmakers back then to 'get the job done,' and it reminded us now that we needed to catch our shuttle to the airport. 

Since so much of the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy was filmed in New Zealand, it is little wonder that some of the characters from Middle Earth are still hanging around. When we got to the air port, we discovered that it had some surprises for us....

While Allie got our tickets out of the self-serve kiosk, the boys and I met Smaug.

As we walked past the shops that line the terminal, we spotted these trolls.

High above us, Gollum dives into the water to catch a nice, tassty fish.

And Gandalf arrives just in time on an Eagle.

Here we are waiting in the  Koru lounge. Very comfortable  

 And naturally, the airport is on the beach too. This is the view out of the Koru lounge window. 

 Buckled up and ready for home. It took the Iron Ram 13 hours to get us to Wellington, but we'll be back in Auckland in only an hour this way.

You know how interminable it seems for the line in front of you to move when you are waiting to leave the plane? Well, they did something on this flight that I haven't seen done before. They let the last twenty rows leave the plane from the tail door. 

I was rather disappointed though that we didn't get to jump out and slide down a big yellow inflated slide. 

What a terrific holiday we had. Allie planned all of this out and it all worked perfectly. We discovered that we love Wellington and actually miss it a bit. 

It is easy to get around it on foot. There are cafes and restaurants everywhere, so we never had to look very hard when we needed to refuel or rest. 

I took some pictures of orchids in the Begonia House at the rose garden that I will probably make a post of sometime when I need one. 

I'm sorry that our holiday Wellington is over and I'm sorry that my posts are done. I've had a ball reliving our adventure and sharing it with you. We'll keep having adventures though, even if they are of a more mundane variety. Keep visiting with us.        -djf