Wellington & Return to Napier - Wellington et notre retour a Napier

One thing we had missed in Wellington was a visit to the New Zealand Parliament; highly recommended by Paul & Nicky. So after our sad goodbyes to the Plummers (at least until January next year!) it was into the city. The Parliament buildings are in the heart of the city:

Apres nos au revoirs a la famille Plummer (jusqu'a janvier 2012), nous avons fait une visite au Parlement de NZ a Wellington.

Essentially we visited three buildings; The Beehive which is for the Cabinet and Prime Minister, Parliament itself and also the Library http://www.parliament.nz/ Above you see the first two with below a closer look at The Beehive:

On a visite trois batiments:  Le Beehive, qui est pour le Gouvernement et Premier Ministre, La Maison de Parlement et le Bibliotheque.

Overall the visit is worthwhile particularly the design of the buildings to withstand earthquakes with the buildings on ''rollers'' allowing the whole of the buildings to move +/- 30 cms. Not merely was it a chance to see these important buildings but also to understand a little of the workings of politics in New Zealand.

La visite etait tres interessante et nous avons vu comment les batiments ont ete construits contre les tremblements de terre, sur les "rouleaux" qui permettent le batiment de bouger +/- 30cms.


An obligatory visit and lunch in Wellington is to The Backbencher pub very close to Parliment http://www.backbencher.co.nz/

On etait oblige de visiter et dejeuner dans un pub, The Backbencher, tres proche au Parlement

Here besides it being a good venue you'll find caricatures of politicians very similar to those in the UK of Spitting Image and in France of  Les Guignols:

Ici on a vu les caricatures des politiciens, comme dans l'emission "Les Guignols":

Goodness knows who this one is meant to be!! Past Prime Ministers were represented:

Quelques exemplaires:

and Paul you'll recognise the one on the right of the photo above!!

et Paul, tu va reconnaitre le politicien au dessous a droite!

They say about the weather in Wellington that one can have all the four seasons in one day! We can agree with this statement given that today we saw some sun, rain and I suspect amongst the sleet.....some snow! - all as we left the city

On se dit que Wellington peut avoir les 4 saisons dans un journee - c'est vrai parce que nous avons eu du soleil, de la pluie et je pense la grele/neige, en quittant le cite.


It was then up Route 2 to the north and Napier/Hastings. Although we had planned to visit Martinborough and sample some wine the weather wasn't good so it was off direct to Kates.

Puis nous sommes rentres chez Kate a Hastings.


Most of the route we had already travelled three times but the hills always have some appeal; very green with no houses etc.

On a deja pris cette route trois fois, mais c'est un paysage tres interessant:

and there's always the chance to see some attractive streams and places along the way:

Les petits ruissseaux