Anzac Day

Remembering Gallipoli, 1916 - Source

Anzac Day Gazette notice, 1916 -Source

Malone Memorial, Stratford, New Zealand - Source

Wellington City People Memorial - 24 April 1931 - Source

Anzac Day Ceremony outside Parliament House, Wellington, 1927 - Source

The happiest country in the World - Part 2 - The Secret Garden and Mele Cascades

One day during our stay at Hideaway Island, we decided it was time to explore the general area in which we were staying. First up we decided to visit "Secret Garden" which was within walking distance of where we were dropped off by our ferry.

Along the way we spotted a kava factory - this is why I prefer walking to getting a taxi (or in the case of Vanuatu a "bus" - which is really a van) because you get to see so much more!

These guys greeted us at the gates of Secret Garden - there's a lot of them all over Port Vila. There was a "mini" zoo at the Secret Garden and we were allowed to hold some of the animals - first up was the Iguana.

Next was the snake - this guy was old and pretty sleepy and most importantly not poisonous!

They had a lot of interesting information at the gardens about the history and culture of Vanuatu - although some of the myths and legends were a little unusual.

Finally - whilst at the Secret Garden we decided we had to be typical cheesy tourists and do this....

After spending a few hours at Secret Garden we decided to move on to our next destination "Mele Cascades" or "Mele Waterfalls". Here's a few of the sights on the way to the main waterfall - I love the beautiful flowers.

When we reached the base of the Mele Cascades this was the view - not too bad at all.

There was a number of ropes to help you climb to the summit of the waterfall - originally I wasn't so keen on going up there. But Rich told me I had too and I'm glad I did - it actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend - its cold, wet and generally miserable here in Wellington - makes me wish I was back in Vanuatu!

Bolton Street Cemetery Walk

A couple of weekends ago Rich and took a guided tour of the Bolton Street Cemetery, which is the burial ground of many of the original residents of Wellington city. It's been closed for many years (since the 1960's) and a motorway has been built through the middle of the cemetery (they had to move a whole bunch of graves and there is a mass burial plot for those that had to be moved) and it is an incredibly interesting place for a history geek like me.





The oldest house in Wellington is also in the park - it's now used as a residency for artists. I think its actually the oldest surviving house in Wellington, there were a couple of fairly major earthquakes in the city in the late 1800's in which I am sure lots of buildings were destroyed.

Wrights Hill - Walk & Old Gun Emplacement

A few weeks ago it was Labour weekend which meant a three day weekend which is always good (The last one until Christmas). On Monday morning Rich and I decided to pay a visit to Wrights Hill.

Wrights Hill is a pretty good walk on its own, however on public holidays its extra special as the old gun emplacement on the hill is opened up to the public and you can walk around and have a look.

When we arrived at the summit of Wrights Hill it was a little windy - it is Wellington after all!
From the summit of Wrights Hill you can see some of the cities wind turbines. There often seems to be resistance to putting up more wind turbines, but I really like them and I think they suit the Wellington landscape. The old Wrights Hill Gun Emplacement was built during the second world war to help defend Wellington city from invasion from the Japanese. I remember reading once that the Japanese were so confident that they would be able to invade New Zealand that they had already printed the money. The reason for the invasion being a simple one was the fact that most young, able-bodied men were fighting in Europe and apart from some US troops we didn't really have any defences. But back to that money - at Wrights Hill they have money that the Japanese had printed in anticipation of the invasion of New Zealand and Australia, both New Zealand and Australian Dollars issued by the Japanese Government.

A few photos of the gun emplacement, the gun is gone now, the NZ Government sold it for scrap after the war. In an ironic historical twist they sold it to the Japanese.

A few more photos from inside the gun emplacement, its a whole maze of tunnels, you could spend hours down there and the historical society that runs it hasn't even opened up all the tunnels yet. Maybe its just me, but I couldn't help but think you could make some excellent horror movie down there or perhaps run a ghost tour, although there would most likely be too many health and safety issues for a ghost tour.

That was how we Monday morning on Labour weekend, we are hoping to do lots more walks now the weather is warmer so hope to have more photos for you all soon.