Welly Welcomes Esmeralda

Well its been illness week in the Dawes household, Bethy and I have had a horrible cold with Bethy gaining a nasty cough too, which has meant many nights of no sleep due to a coughing and wandering child. Poor little mite.

We obviously haven't done much over the last few days and have literally spent our time wrapped up on the sofa under the duvet...despite the sunshine outside!

On Friday 1st June Esmeralda arrived in Wellington. She is a steel-hulled four-masted barquentine tall ship of the Chilean Navy and currently the second tallest and longest sailing ship in the world, however quite a controversial ship based on claims it was a 'torture ship' those many years ago.


So as I was today starting to go a little stir crazy I decided to meet Michael after work so we could go check out this amazing ship.

The city is so beautiful with such amazing features that as always I cant resist to take pictures of anything and everything!

Naturally of course Bethany definitely needed some exercise and to blow off some steam so as usual we just had to stop off at Frank Kitts Park!

Michael joined us at the play area so we then made our way round to Esmeralda, she is a phenomenal sight.

As we neared we were invited aboard, where we were not only lucky enough to see this amazing vessel close up but we were also privileged enough to watch the lowering of the flag.




We wished the Chilean crew goodbye and good luck for their voyage on to Sydney, as we left the boat Bethany was even more overwhelmed to be able to get up close and personal with a helicopter!

After all the excitement it was time for tea at Chicago on the wharf, we had a brilliant chat with the barman who was also British and recognised our 'geordie' accent! Nooo, all this way and people call us Geordie's!

We finished our night with a lovely stroll back through the city, seeing the city lights at night is a must.