Being a tourist

For the remainder of my holiday week (Leigh has another week off), we did some chores … but also did some tourist things, namely visit Zealandia and Wellington Zoo.

Zealandia is an eco-sanctuary about 15 minutes from Wellington city centre. It’s about 225 ha of fenced bush around an old reservoir (the land is on a fault line which makes the reservoir kind of useless as a water supply). I think it was the first fenced eco-sanctuary in the world (fenced to keep out the mammals). It’s actually a maze of tracks where you can see a huge variety of native birds, tuatara and plants. It’s a lovely place to spend half a day strolling … or if you want to push yourself, hiking.

One joy was finding a (quite elderly) Takahē; there are (at the time of writing) only 303 left in the world.

I have a complicated relationship with zoos – I love animals but zoos often leave me feeling sad. Wellington Zoo is 20 minutes walk from our door and has a good ethical reputation so it would have been churlish not to go. It’s a good zoo … a solid 7/10. The animals they have seem very healthy and happy … and while some of the enclosures appear small, you get the impression that there is enough space beyond what the public can see.

Here are some pictures from both Zealandia and the zoo.