This afternoon I flew back from Wellington where I had gone for a quick holiday with my mom.

Flight down. NZ is called the land of the long white cloud for a reason. (sorry for the off colour this taken of course from a plane)

Mt Ruapehu peaking out above the clouds. (photo taken at 34,000 feet)

Zoomed in for a closer view.

Passing another plane. I believe this may be a Virgin Blue plane because closely zoomed it appears red.

After landing in Wellington the first thing we did was to rent a car and drive to the top of Mount Victoria. This is the view from the top looking back at the Airport.

Wellington Harbour from Mount Victoria

Central Wellington from Mount Victoria

After leaving Mount Victoria we headed to Parliament for a quick visit before having lunch at the Backbencher Pub. From there we headed up to the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. At the sanctuary we walked up to a dam and along the way met some interesting creatures.

This is from a lookout above the dam that we climbed to. Lots of fun. The Sanctuary is an awesome thing to have so close to the center of a city.

This is the fence that protects the Sanctuary from the rest of civilization.

After leaving the Sanctuary we went shopping in Lambton Key and Willis Street before checking into our hotel where we had dinner and afterwards went for a night time drive around the capital.

Mom at the top of Mount Victoria

A tired Brad at the end of the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary.

On the Sunday we had a midmorning flight to catch back so we headed to the airport by taking a detour through the city, around Oriental Parade and Miramar. On the flight back we got a really nice view of Mt Taranaki and the surrounding coastline.

However, before this story is compete there is one final twist in it. I the title of this post is the 24 hour Wellington Experience. And you cannot experience Wellington without being in an Earthquake. So at 3am this morning Wellington decided to a little jolt. It was enough to wake both me and mom up, first there was a loud bang and then the walls of the hotel moved twice before something fell over in the bathroom (probably a shampoo bottle) at the time both me and mom thought each other were asleep and both of us just went back to sleep and our suspicions about an earthquake were confirmed in the morning.

Quake Details

Information about this earthquake:

Reference Number	2923267/G
Universal Time	June 14 2008 at 15:07
NZ Standard Time	Sunday, June 15 2008 at 3:07 am
Latitude, Longitude	41.18°S, 174.42°E
Focal Depth	40 km
Richter magnitude	3.7
Region	Marlborough
Location	30 km north-west of Wellington

Felt in Wellington and Marlborough.

http://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/quakes/2923267g.html

Tags: Earthquake, Flying, Karori, Mount Victoria, Parliament, Ruapehu, Travels, Wellington

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