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Billy's Travels in New Zealand in November 2006

His Hosts: Elsa Kelly and Hannah Kelly (aged 3 1/2 years old)

Billy arrived in Wellington, New Zealand, on the 3 November 2006 and he visited some exciting places while he was here. Billy also caught a cold and got sick like one of his hosts, Hannah, and had to delay his travel plans. He left New Zealand on the 14 November 2006 and travelled to Queensland, Australia.

View across valley island Bay

This is the view from the Kelly's front door, it is looking out over a place called Island Bay, Wellington. Behind the trees in the foreground is Island Bay School and more information can be found on this school at:
http://www.islandbay.school.nz/Island_Bay_School/Home.html
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Hannahs School Outside

Billy also went with Hannah to her preschool, Capital Montessori School, in Kingston, Wellington. This preschool is run on the Montessori principle. Billy liked it at her school, he spent the morning there and was introduced to the class at "show and tell" time. Hannah had him help her do some of her work.
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Billy Helping Hannah

Next Billy travelled to Upper Hutt and on the way we stopped and had a look at the Petone foreshore plus the Petone Settlers Museum. Petone foreshore is famous for being the first place that Europeans arrived to settle in New Zealand in the 1840's. Some information about this can be found at this web site http://www.huttcity.govt.nz/Council-Services/Museums--Galleries/Petone-Settlers-Museum/Passenger-Database-/Passenger-Database/Post.aspx, sadly we could not visit the Settlers Museum as Hannah and Billy had fallen asleep in the car.
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Wellington Harbour

This picture of Wellington was taken from the Petone foreshore.
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The picture below is of the enterance to Wellington harbour. On the left hand side is where Pencarrow Light House is situated, one of Hannah's ancestors was the only women Light House keeper in New Zealand. Some information about the Light House can be found at this web site http://www.historic.org.nz/en/sitecore/content/Destinations/Home/placesToVisit/lowerNorthIsland/PencarrowLighthouse.aspx some more information can be found here http://www.newzealandlighthouses.com/pencarrow.htm

Wellington harbour entrance from the Petone foreshore

Entrance to Harbour

This is Petone Settler Museum on the Petone foreshore.
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Site of landing of first arrivals to New Zealand marked with the Settlers Museum at Petone foreshore

Also on the way to Upper Hutt we stopped and had a look at one of the film locations of the Lord of the Rings, this is where Helm's Deep was filmed. These are some web sites about Lord of the Rings http://www.theonering.net/scrapbook/view/174 . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings:_The_Two_Towers

One of the Lord of The Rings sites now bare of buildings and props

While in Upper Hutt, (http://www.upperhuttcity.com/) Billy visited Hannah's Uncle (Uncle Jim) and Grandfather (Jamie). Upper Hutt is situated around 30 kilometers inland from Wellington. Upper Hutt is where Elsa and her family grew up.
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Billy with Granddad

Uncle Jim

Billy enjoyed the party that was on at Uncle Jim's and Granddad Jamie's house, the party was for Guy Fawkes, and we let fire works off in celebration.

See photo of Billy with Granddad Jamie, Jamie is a tetraplegic from a fall in 2000, he uses an electric wheelchair to get around.

A picture of Uncle Jim is above.

Information about Guy Fawkes can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes.
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Billy in the Middle

A close up of Billy in the centre of the BBQ.

BBQ Ready to Eat

This is a photo of Billy enjoying the barbeque dinner we had before we let off the fireworks.
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Weta Studio - Lord ofThe Rings

The next place of interest that Billy travelled to was Miramar, Wellington. This is where the Camperdown Studios and Weta Digital have their premises. Camperdown Studios is where Peter Jackson and his team work from, they have used the studios in the Lord of the Rings and King Kong movies. Weta Digital is the place of special effects. Here is a photo of the entrance to Weta Digital. More information can be found at http://www.wetafx.co.nz/
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Wellington Wind Wand

On the way back into Wellington we passed the "wind wand" (zephyrometer) at Evans Bay. http://www.wn.co.nz/camera.php?cameraid=10

Here is a website that shows the weather for all over of New Zealand http://www.metservice.co.nz/default/index.php

Wellington is well known for it winds and hilly terrain, most Wellingtonians call it "Windy Wellington", there are not many rainy days that you can use an umbrella without it being blown inside out. Some information about Wellington can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellington

On another day we popped into the Wellington Zoo, this is one of Hannah's favourite places she likes the kangaroos and monkeys. This web site is about the Zoo. http://www.tourism.net.nz/new-zealand/attractions/sightseeing-and-leisure/wildlife-parks/wellington/wellington-zoo/ Back to Top

Billy and Hannah at Te Papa Museum with a Museum Hostess
Billy and Hannah at Te Papa Museum with a Museum Hostess

We also visited the National Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa. Here is Billy and Hannah with a museum hostess.
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Here is the web site for Te Papa http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/pages/default.aspx

Hannah with Dinosaur Puzzle at Te Papa Museum

Hannah and Billy had fun building a dinosaur puzzle in one of the discovery centres.
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Island Bay

We also visited Island Bay beach, which is a 20 minute walk from our house, Billy and Hannah did not want to get out of the car as Wellington was living up to it's windy name and it was a very windy and cold day. http://www.wcl.govt.nz/heritage/islandbay.html

And on a fine and calm day Billy travelled with Hannah and her Mum to the top of Tinakori Hill, Tinakori Hill overlooks the harbour of Wellington and Petone. This picture is of Wellington from Tinakori Hill.
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Wellington from Tinakori Hill

Billy went shopping in downtown Wellington and brought some gifts and souvenirs that he has sent home to Pennsylvania, included in the souvenirs is a Tiki. A tiki is a Maori Carving and was the name of the first Maori's man. The Maori people used legends and myths to tell the history of their people. More information can be found on this web site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiki_%28mythology%29 And this web site http://history-nz.org/maori9.html
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Another Souvenir, Billy, included in his parcel home, is a picture of a Kiwi, this was given to him by Hannah's pre school to remind him of his visit. The Kiwi is the national bird of New Zealand. This web site has some more information about the Kiwi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiwi

Billy also included in the parcel home a page from the Dominion Post, the local Wellington Newspaper. The Online version can be found on this web page http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/0,,0a6000,00.html

Hannah was sad to say goodbye to Billy and we wish him well for the rest of his travels. We have enjoyed hosting Billy and showing him some of the sites of Wellington.

Elsa and Hannah
Wellington
New Zealand
22 November 2006
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