Wellington: Zealandia and Cable Car Museum

The next day we spent hours at Zealandia, a wildlife reserve with an anti-predatory fence around it to enable birds and reptiles to flourish in a managed rainforest just outside of Wellington. We walked some of the trails, surrounded by birdsong and enjoying many sightings of birds, and even a tuatara lizard and some weta bugs. There was also an old mining cave with lots of weta on the walls -- we got out of there pretty fast!

Tui are black with white tufts under their beaks

shags (cormorants) on their nests with babies

Takahe

Takahe

Can you see the tuatara lizard? (hint: right in the center)

Saddlebacks (named for orange feathers on their back)

large eel

ferns are one of the national symbols

There used to be a reservoir until they discovered it was on the fault line.

This robin was hoping to snag some crumbs from our lunch.

weta bug

New Zealand's native pigeon

old mining cave

pine tree that looked really cool

sweet orange mushroom!

Next we went to the Cable Car Museum at the top of a big hill with great views of Wellington. We also rode it down and up, although it is enclosed and not as fun as the cable cars in San Francisco.