Wellington, Zealandia.

Just up from the cablecar and past a Wellington cricket pitch

is Zealandia.

ZEALANDIA is the world’s first fully-fenced urban ecosanctuary, with an extraordinary 500-year vision to restore a Wellington valley’s forest and freshwater ecosystems as closely as possible to their pre-human state. The 225 hectare ecosanctuary is a groundbreaking conservation project that has reintroduced 18 species of native wildlife back into the area, 6 of which were previously absent from mainland New Zealand for over 100 years. 

China has the Great Wall. New Zealand has The Great Fence. A world first and a magnificent piece of New Zealand ingenuity, the fence has been designed to keep out all mammalian pests.

Look how high the fence goes.

A guided tour around Zealandia is an absolute MUST if you want to see any birds.

Guides recognise the bird song and know where to look. Guides spot birds and then inform other guides so they too can get there and enjoy.

It was hard to capture these birds on camera but we saw all of these on this list.

Weta were in their hotels in the bark.

Tui looked like blackbird vicars with their white dogcollar throttles.

Kakariki parrots were comical at the feeding stations.

Seeing Hihi was a bonus, especially when FOUR flew past us together.

Tuatara were in the undergrowth, well camouflaged.

Saddlebacks sounded like misfiring car engines and took some spotting.

Without our guide we wouldn't have seen half of these!

It's a fabulous place but very much for the enthusiast.

Aaah the silver fern.

With MCG armband (!)

Tour over, we headed back to town.

And had an hour on the beach.

I was very impressed with the teenage girls who just ran into the sea.

Long hair and everything.

A plank had to be done.

It was a bit treacherous.

But I didn't fall in.

Lots were sitting outside having drinks.

Another lovely day.

Wellington was the busiest place so far. It actually had cars. And quite a lot of people.

Nice.