Haha, I thought my husband and I were so impressive on our first day in Wellington, pursuing not one but two of our varied interests, until I realised that evening over a glass of wine that we had spent the entire day immersed in history.

In the morning we explored Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand, from top to the bottom, taking in its wonder and that afternoon we had a bush walk. It wasn’t your average bush walk though. It was in the 225-hectare Zealandia Ecosanctuary. From the website, Zealandia is:

“… the world’s first fully-fenced urban ecosanctuary, with an extraordinary 500-year vision to restore Wellington valley’s forest and freshwater ecosystems as closely as possible to the pre-human state….[it] has reintroduced over 20 species of native wildlife back into the area…”

We walked back in time, to natural history stopped in time, 770 years ago.

Then I realised that every bush walk we take is actually a walk back in time. The ground we tread, the rocks we ramble over, the branches we duck under are the same that our ancestors enjoyed.