Sandwiches and VWs

On April 16, Easter Sunday, we arrived at Wellington, New Zealand, our second time here.  We went up to breakfast before we got off the ship and there were balloons and crepe paper egg decorations for the day.  How nice. 

This time we had decided to just walk about.   When we were getting off the ship there was a working Beagle named Fergus.  I wasn’t allowed to pet or photograph him, but he jumped on me a few times, so I believe he knew I was a Beagle person.  At every port there are announcements to not take food off the ship.  And guess what … people do.  Therefore, we have dogs to sniff it out, and what better dog to sniff out food than a Beagle?  I heard Fergus got the job done and one less sandwich made it to shore.

A Beagle pillow would have to do.

During our walkabout we found some of the things our port lecturer had talked bout.  Cuba Street was a cool little street where there are some fun sculptures.  We had to photograph them, and then we walked to the War Memorial and the Te Papa Museum, although it was so crowded we didn’t really want to tour it.  We just continued to walk and found more cool buildings and sculptures.

Cuba Street ... what an interesting street.

A day for sculptures and signs.  The bucket fountain is made up of buckets with water cascading down starting at the top, from one to the next. Very cool.

An elaborate restaurant sign.

Lights seem to be fancy sometimes.

This sign is by the fish market.  Seems appropriate.

A beautiful entrance sign to the restaurant.

The War Memorial opened in 1932, is beautiful inside and out.  Parts have been added, such as the hall of memories in 1964.  The memorial acknowledges the impact of war on the nearly 30,000 New Zealanders who have died in conflict and honors all who have served.

This statue is dedicated to the medics and ambulance drivers and the donkeys that were used to bear stretchers.

 

The Parliament Building is known as the Beehive.

There was a VW car show on Queen’s Wharf.  Old ones, new ones.  It was so fun to see all of them.

This one was pretty rough, but I loved the luggage.

Yep, old 76.

This one reminded me of a friend who has passed, Sunflower.  She loved sunflowers.  She and her dad rode with us, from when she was a youngster.

We saw some dogs so I could get a real dog fix.  One was part Rhodesian Ridgeback who is still a puppy.  He’s eaten part of a couch, some rug, and a whole lot of things.  Their other dog, named Holly, is sweet and their golden child.  The ridgeback, Brodie, is their problem child, but oh, so cute.  I loved him.

Brodie, the brat.

We walked on.  There, ahead, were four Greyhounds.  One black girl is Willow and she was my favorite.  There are about 40 of them who come on Easter Sunday every year to do a walkabout.  How fun.  We saw 10 of them.  Was so fun as they’re such great dogs.

Willow, very stately.

Lovely dogs.

There was an interesting paint job on this building.  It might have been a parking lot.  I don't know.

I love how there are whimsical statues here and there.

See the yellow M&Ms in front of the building.

There's no end to beautiful buildings.

Perhaps not as beautiful, but certainly intriguing, these are toilettes.  I thought they were worm sculptures of some sort.

Then we wandered a bit further and headed toward where we needed to go to catch the shuttle back to the ship.  Good thing.  It started to sprinkle, then rain.  Our timing was impeccable today.