Rain: 125 days a year, totaling 1240mm (48 inches)
Wind: 64 days a year with gusts over 96kph (60mph)
Temperatures: Average daily between 8-20C (46-68F) with minimal seasonal variation.
Some 98% of the native forest on the Wellington Peninsula has been cleared for farming/industry/housing. Of the remaining 2%, about half is in the hills above Wellington proper and is a large park and bush reserve. So naturally we had to visit. We navigated the steep-and-sometimes-narrow residential streets (maze-like sometimes) up the rolling hills above the city, and snagged a parking spot (never a guarantee here).
Shortly after entering the park (which was mostly empty of people), we stumbled on a very laid back young kaka hunting for grubs in an old tree. Jen was flabbergasted that we had managed to find one in an urban area on the North Island after we had scoured the South Island to see only 1 overhead and Stewart Island only to see 2 up close and several from a distance.
Our goal was to hike a few km back into the park, where an 800 year old rimu tree grows.
At over 60ft tall, it's a big one! This tree was well established by the time Maori settled in this region.
Nearby some different locals had left their mark in a fern tree trunk.
To our surprise, the bizarre lancewood tree, actually grows into a tree! It just takes a few decades for them to get tall enough. To the right are the young ones, the taller tree-like lancewood is at the center.
This one is known as a "kaka's beak."
From here we headed south around Cape Palliser. The soft rock here makes for some interesting formations as water erodes.
This is a California Quail (obviously not from NZ!).
A few hundred steps brought us to another great lighthouse vista.
I was feeling the burn about step 180.
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