We spent the day Saturday exploring more of Wellington, specifically the suburb of Oriental Bay. This is the priciest area of Welly and we found out why; it is a beautiful neighborhood bordering a scenic edge of Wellington Harbor. There were a few neat playgrounds as well as a beach, though it was too chilly to do anything but look at it.
Above: looking out at the harbor from Oriental Bay; below: Amelia doing her thing at the playground.
Sunday was warmer and we decided to get away from the city for a bit. We drove about 1.5 hours north along the coast (newsflash: it was really pretty) before taking a rally-inspired gravel road through the Otaki Gorge. On the way down, Amy gripped the door handle and tried to stifle her gasps. I didn't fully appreciate her situation until the drive back when I was the one nearest the edge.
The Otaki Forks area is an old mining camp from the early 1900's which is now a nature reserve. From the parking area, we crossed a swinging bridge over a nice river and started out on a short tramp (I'd call it a hike, but Amelia no longer lets me get away with it: "People only hike in America, daddy. In New Zealand it's tramping.") She should know as she's become quite a fan of tramping in the last few weeks. We spent much of the day watching her lead the way at a run:
The views of the gorge were...well, gorgeous.
At the end of the day, Amelia and Amy celebrated their accomplishment. It was well deserved as Amelia actually did hike over 2 miles by herself. Oh, and the black eye is courtesy of an accident with one of her toys in case you were wondering.
In other news, we're keeping our fingers crossed for all of our friends and family back home in La. Hopefully Gustav will end up being little more than a reason to throw a nice hurricane party...
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