Mid Sem break

April 19-24 

This was such an exciting trip ahead hehe. Kara, Tai, and I had never done touristy things down in Wellington before so we were super excited. We had met up and planned out our week and it was one I was really looking forward to. 

April 19th: 

The beginning to our trip! We started to head down South and we planned to stop about halfway in a town called Raetihi for the night. Along the way, we stopped in Putaruru to visit the Blue Springs, Taupo for lunch at this cute cafe, and then we finally made it to Raetihi! 

This place was gorgeous. The weather was perfect and the views were stunning. The Air BnB was on a hill, so we could see a lot of the area. There was a nice seating area, where we just sat and watched the sun set. There were sheeps in the area, and it was a first for us to ever see a sheep that was brown hehe! They were so cute. 

We wanted to do some exploring and get some dinner, so we ended up driving to a town close by called Ohakune. They were well known for having a jumbo carrot in the town, so we took advantage to go and see that hehe. 

We went back to Raetihi and had a firepit at the Air BnB, so we took advantage of that! We sat out at the fire for the night and had some smores. It was lovely. 

Apri 20th: 

We started our day out at Tongariro Crossing. The plan was to do just a part of the hike and it was meant to be 1.5 hours total but I think it ended up being close to 3 hahaha. Which, if you know me well that was just wild lol but I'm grateful for those two cousins of mine for encouraging me to do something like that haha. It was also a very beautiful hike and luckily the weather was good to us. 

After a few hours, we finally made it to Porirua! We have so much family there so that was a nice part of our trip to catch up with only a few of them. We had dinner with some of the Hippolites and stayed at Marsellas and enjoyed watching some tv together. 

April 21st: 

We woke up bright and early and headed to the Porirua museum. That was so neat! We had so much of our culture and whakapapa included in the museum so that was special. We also got to visit our marae, so that was a lovely thing that we were able to see.  

Takapūwāhia marae

Great grandmother's side of the family, this was pretty neat to see

The next plan to our day was to visit this place called Cape Palliser. It had this lighthouse we wanted to go and see so we hopped in the car and headed out on our next adventure. 

It was one of the most prettiest drives! It had a mix of everything; there were ocean views, countryside views, etc. It was pretty amazing. 

We ended up stopped at this ocean view and this is what that looked like:

A bit of a windy day hehe

In the town of Cape Palliser there are only a few residents, so it was a really quiet area to the point that there were a ton of cattle walking around the area. There was a lot of hard stopping due to the casual sheep that would pop up in the middle of the road haha. 

Then, we finally made it to CAPE PALLISER lighthouse. Now here are some pics to help to show how flipping steep the hike up to it was haha. The stairs were straight up to the top and it was rough man, but getting to the top was worth it. 

Here we are at the top. It was by far one of the most prettiest places I had been too and we loved this part to our trip. Tai put it best, that it was as if we were the only people who knew about this place and that's how it felt. We were only one a few groups who were there and it was so nice to be able to enjoy that together. 

We headed back to Porirua and had dinner with Uncle Frank and Aunty Karina, and that was so flipping good. They treated us so well and cooked up this lovely burrito dinner and yummy dessert. It was so nice being able to chat and catch up with them. 

April 22nd: 

Wellington! This was a full on day for us. We really went for it and tried to do it all hehe. We did the cable cars and at the top of the ride, there was the prettiest view of the city. 

We went to visit the Wellington sign: 

We spent an hour or two in Te Papa museum. That was a must on our list and that was a really cool part to the day. By the time we were leaving, we got to watch the sun go down on the wharf and that was amazing. 

This was the best way to end the night hehe. We had a Sals pizza next door to the hotel, so we went all out and got us a yummy dinner hehe. 

April 23rd: 

Wellington Day 2! We visited the Wellington museum and art museum hehe. We spent quite a bit of our time in museums and we loved the time we had visiting them. 

We did a lot of walking around town. The buildings in Wellington were absolutely beautiful and the energy of the town was so cool. 

Here's some pics of what we ate hehe: 

and this is how we ended our night haha! We had such a full on week that we were just exhausted. We weren't super hungry either so we went across the street to countdown and got heaps of treats and stayed in for the night watching the chiefs play hehe. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip haha, just relaxing in our cozy hotel room and watching Dmack smile hehe. 

April 24th: 

Mount Vic

The end to our trip, and like I said, it was a good one.