Leah Travels: Wellington.

BE WARNED that this post is super long. But lots of photos! Click them to make them bigger. :)

- - - - -> We probably picked the worst weekend to go to Wellington, as it was windy, rainy, and cold the entire time. Luckily there were lots of inside things to do. It would be a shame to waste beautiful sunshiny days on museums anyway, right?

First off, our bus out of Wanganui was 20 minutes late. Not bad. But then our transfer bus in Palmerston North was over an hour late. And then just outside of Wellington a car merged into our lane at the last minute and hit the bus! No one was hurt and the damage wasn't bad, I don't think, I mean the car was still able to drive. But the bus driver still had to stop and talk to the guy, and again at the police station to report it. How exciting is the big city!

Finally we made it to Base Backpackers and checked into our room. There were five of us: Me, Liz, Beth, Chris, and Fahd; and we were staying in a 6 bunk dorm, which meant we had a random roommate. At first we were worried because what if we got stuck with some crazy sketchy guy? But thankfully, no. Because the next thing we know random-roommate-guy was in the room apologizing that his stuff was everywhere and we were like, "Are you German?" because of his accent and he said yes! So we told him we were studying abroad and he told us he had been working in Australia, was now traveling through NZ, and next will be in the U.S. to hit up New York and other cities. He said he went bungee jumping in Queenstown and that it was awesome! I asked him if he had a blog but he didn't know what that was. So I showed him mine. Oh no, he's probably reading this right now! Then we checked out the bar in the basement. Some guys were break dancing and it was fun to watch.

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Saturday we began our morning at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. It wasn't far from base backpackers...but the wind almost blew us off the sidewalks. I had my camera safely tucked underneath my raincoat.

TE PAPA!

Music being played on 2nd floor.

6 floors of fun-filled learning!

Maori shell trumpet.

Fahd & Chris

Maori weapons, intricately designed.

Polynesians first came to New Zealand around 1200 AD, arriving on large boats and using the stars to navigate South. As Kupe neared land after the long voyage his wife cried, "He ao! He ao!" meaning "A cloud! A cloud!" when she saw the land and that is how New Zealand's original name, Aotearoa, came to be because it means "long white cloud". These Polynesians became a new group of people that referred to themselves as Maoris.

Maori fishing hooks.

Europeans arrived around the 18th century and did that thing they do when they just TAKE OVER. There was a section with three walls that were filled with names of animals that had gone extinct, it was sad.

Just about everything was written both in english and in maori, as you can kind of see in the next two images.

It was interesting reading about WWI & II and how NZ had to fight for Britain. There has been a surprising amount of nuclear weapon testing in the south pacific by France, Britain, and the U.S. which has had a negative impact on animals, the environment, and people's health. NZ has since taken a stand: "We can take pride...in being nuclear free and in having the strength and independence not to send our young people off to fight in unjust wars." -Helen Clark, NZ Prime Minister, 2005.

After the museum we grabbed lunch. I really wanted to check out this restaurant called Burger Wisconsin, but we couldn't find it. So I got chicken and chips at a cafe for $6.

It was still raining, so Liz, Chris, and Fahd went to see the Underworld in 3D at the movie theater. I kind of wanted to go because I haven't seen a 3D movie yet, but instead I walked with Beth in the rain. We found the City Gallery, which is a free art gallery that was really cool. Kind of like a mini Walker Museum if-you-know-what-I-mean.

Cool mural.

Rugby statue in the park!

City Gallery Exhibit: The Obstinate Object

Gotta love contemporary art. I got yelled at for taking pictures.

After the City Gallery we continued to walk along the water front and found the Wellington Museum which had a lovely history of Wellington through the decades. One of Pippin's prosthetic hobbit feet was there! They had a section on shipwrecks...one that was an especially large tragedy was called the Wahine Disaster (so Dad, feel free to look that up).

There was an interesting exhibit about death and how different religions and cultures view it. Often we learn about various creation stories, but what about what happens when we die? So I enjoyed reading about Judaism and Chinese and Maori etc. Kind of depressing though. Especially this part:

The whole display was very moving. I read a lot of the cards. They were in so many different languages. I thought of writing something and tying it up but I didn't know what to write.

After the Wellington Museum, Beth and I found the cable car and rode it up to the Botanic Garden.

Not much time was spent outside because the weather got worse. But we did find the Carter Observatory and watched a sweet animation about becoming an astronaut in the planetarium. Then we learned about different constellations that can be seen in New Zealand. I can't wait to go stargazing somewhere! We also saw a cool video about Maui, a popular character in Maori folklore, and how he tamed the sun.

Our return into town was delayed an hour due to the cable car not working, luckily they got it to start so we didn't have to walk!

Saturday evening was spent at the base backpacker bar again. People here like to dance! Even the guys! Unheard of in America. Ahaha. We would have liked to see more of the city come alive during the night but again we didn't want to walk around in the wind/rain. I fell asleep to wind, traffic noises, and loud american pop songs being blasted through the streets.

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Sunday we took a city bus to Weta cave. It's not a cave, it's a building. But Weta has played a big part in many movies by making props, puppets, creatures, crazy makeup and concept models...including but not limited to The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Avatar, Zorro, Narnia. District 9...etc. We watched a really neat 25 minute film on what they do. It seemed like something Kevin Pontuti would have us watch in class (seriously, Kevin!) and the best part is it was free!

Riding da bus.

Read the fine print: over $500 to buy the One Ring.

After Weta Cave Beth lost her purse. So scary! She couldn't remember when she had it last. She thought someone stole it on the bus. After a couple hours of retracing her steps and Liz calling the bus system with no luck...and then THANKFULLY someone had found it at the bus stop and turned it in. We were all relieved. Kiwis are so nice. Seriously. I'm impressed.

Before catching the bus back home we checked out Old St. Paul's Cathedral for some photo ops.