Zealandia

The Karori Sanctuary is a beautiful haven right here in the heart of Wellington - a nature preserve full of animals unique to New Zealand and it's practically in our backyard. The powers that be have decided to re-name it Zealandia and market it more aggressively as a tourist attraction. There's been a bit of a brouhaha over it - as there always is when something is changed - but no matter what you call it, the place is amazing and we went there on Saturday to participate in some of their Easter celebrations. 

First up, egg painting. I was very grateful for this activity as I had failed to special order white eggs from the butcher for the girls to color. They only sell brown eggs in the store here - and we get brown eggs from our farmer - so I didn't have any suitable for dyeing. 

Then it was time for an Easter Egg hunt - only not like any egg hunt we've been on before. This one involved a sheet with clues that Daddy read out to the girls, then a hunt all over the sanctuary. Here's Daddy reading the first clue to our eager beavers.
And they're off. . .
It was a great way to explore the sanctuary and we were there for several hours looking for eggs, but admiring the wildlife too. The "eggs" we were looking for were simply construction paper cut in the shape of an egg and we just had to write down what color we found where on our clue sheet.
We spotted one of the elusive tuatara, can you see him?

It was such a fun way to spend the morning - the rest of the afternoon wasn't nearly as exciting as it just consisted of lunch and shoe shopping, but we did stop in Seatoun to visit with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Kate who are in town for Easter and the Wellington Quilt Symposium. Kate won 1st place with one of her quilts, she is amazing and I'll try to post pics of the quilt here - I've seen it and it is remarkable.