Wellington - Day 1, 2 and 4
Last time we “talked,” I was on the verge of collapse after the Crossing, so it was a nice change of pace to just cruise around a big city for a few days. I was originally planning on being there Saturday through Tuesday, but, once again, Stray had availability for everyday except Tuesday, so I ended up staying until Wednesday instead. I didn’t really mind that at all, because there’s so much to see and do in Wellington. The actual drive there was fairly straight-forward and a little bit dreary, but everyone perked up when we were within sight of the city. I have to be honest, my first impression of Wellington wasn’t the greatest because, much like Oroville, the road into Wellington from the north passes through the least desirable parts of the city first. So we went through the dark, industrial area on the way in, and then the driver passed right on to the metropolitan shopping district. The green, sweeping shots of the bay from above that I had seen from pamphlets were nowhere to be found. That disappointed me a bit at first because I so wanted to love Wellington, but I eventually found the parts that I had been dreaming of. I’ll get to those in all due time.
First, about an hour or two north of Wellington, we stopped at a place called Otaki for a brief fuel change. I spent the entire fifteen or twenty minutes there running as far out into the countryside as I could get so that I could catch a glimpse of “Leaving the Shire” scenery. According to my handy LOTR Location Guide book, Otaki and Otaki Gorge are where they filmed Gandalf leaving the hobbits on the way to Bree, just outside of the Shire. Unfortunately, the place that they filmed at is a bit of a hike out there, and I didn’t have the time to go find the exact spot, but some of the surrounding area looked close enough for me to feel satisfied. Then it was onto Wellington, but I’ve already gone into that a little bit already.
Otaki and the surrounding countryside. Kind of like the edge of the Shire. Some reference shots as well.
After a brief tour of the main downtown, the Stray Bus (led by Rob and Rob) let us off at Base Wellington, right across the street from the Embassy Theater. For all of you not up on LOTR trivia, that’s the same theater where they had the world premier of Return of the King. So I was psyched to be right next to it. Emily and Sammi, the two girls that I did the Crossing with, had the same idea as I did - to just cruise through town and take tons of pictures. I didn’t really know where I was going, though, and I got the sense that they wanted to do their own thing, too, so we went our separate ways after checking in with reception. The Base Wellington hostel was pretty nice - much better than the Base in Auckland had been - so it was a shame that I didn’t really hang out there at all except to crash at night.
Area around my hostel
So I started off at the Embassy and got some great pics inside there, and then I just picked a direction at random to go off and explore. The oceanfront area seemed the most natural choice, so I started there and decided to work my way east towards the botanical gardens. I had heard from a few different people that there was some sort of music festival going on in Wellington that weekend, so I wasn’t that surprised to find the whole beach packed with drunken twenty-somethings and loud music blaring everywhere. I guess it was a New Zealand group named “Homegrown.” The whole area was pretty much closed off for ticket holders only, so I decided to steer clear of that and move into the city a bit. I had thought to do the music festival going on on Sunday because it was less of a “get drunk and blast music all night” kind of thing and more of a “cool music from around the world” kind of thing, but as luck would have it, it ended up raining quite a bit that day, so I didn’t get to go to that. Oh well.
Inside the Embassy Theater, where all the cast saw the premiere
Once I moved off the water and into the more metropolitan areas of Lambdon Quay and Courtney Place, the whole vibe of the place changed drastically. All of the shops and businesses gave it a more generic city feel, and it reminded me strongly of downtown San Francisco. I wandered around there for a while, taking lots of photos and getting thoroughly lost, before I happened upon the entrance to Cable Car Lane. That was probably the thing I was most looking forward to in Wellington, so it was a happy accident to just run into it. Basically, for $6 roundtrip, the little red cable car goes up the side of the hill that surrounds Wellington and docks at the entrance to the botanical gardens. Once you’re up above the city, there are some great scenic views of the harbor and every variety of fountain and garden you can imagine, plus a great big observatory in the center of it all. On the way up, you pass the brick buildings of Victoria University, bridges covered with vines, and cute little side streets filled with houses. It was nice to get out of the city and get some fresh air after being in a bus for so long.
Walking around in downtown Wellington
That whole area up there is just amazing - easily my favorite part of Wellington. It’s all so lush and green that it makes up for the really urban parts of the city. I really wanted to go and check out the observatory in the center of the gardens as well, but it was kind of late by that point, and I had plans for later that evening. Do you guys remember Kim? The other American girl that we met up with in Napier and followed us around for a few days? Well, she’s based in Wellington and had said that we were all welcome if we were ever in town, so I called in on that favor beforehand. I didn’t want to presume too much and ask for a place to stay (plus I didn’t know the living situation and thought it might be a bad idea if they all party late or something), but I mentioned that I would be around in case she wanted to get together for something. It just so happened that she had some sort of cocktail party going on that night anyways, so she invited me to come along if I wanted to. That was supposed to happen around 8 and it was already almost 5, so that didn’t give me a whole lot of time.
Shots of the gardens and surrounding area
Meanwhile, I had some time to kill in the Botanical Gardens. I chose one particular trail at random and followed it for a good twenty minutes or so before it split into three other paths. Then I just kept picking a direction on a whim and kept going deeper into the trees. That was pretty cool, I have to say. There were all these cicadas making a racket in the branches up above, and I got to see my very first weta - a major achievement for a life-long nerd. Well, I actually think it was the exoskeleton of a weta, but I’m going to call that a win. It’s hard to tell on a map, but those gardens are huge. I wandered around there for a good couple of hours, and I still didn’t see all of it. On one side, there’s a big gazebo and duck pond for weddings and events, and way up on the top, there’s a thing called Druid’s Hill with a big sculpture thing in the shape of a cylinder. Supposedly, you’re supposed to get inside the center of it and be able to hear the “sounds of the city” magnified through the metal, but I actually thought it was more muted in there than on the outside. It was still cool.
Druid;s Hill sculpture and the trip down on the cable car
At about that time, I got a text from Kim saying that things were going to start rolling soon, so I started heading back in the general direction of the cable car. It took a little bit of trial and error to find the right path because they all look the same after a while, but I eventually got back down the hill. I did, however, manage to get lost downtown for a good portion of an hour on my way home. You see, Wellington is, obviously, right on the ocean, so as long as you know where the water is, it’s relatively easy to get to where you need to go by location. In my case, I needed to head due west towards Courtney Place, but there was a little canal running parallel to Cuba Street that messed with my sense of direction. I thought it was the ocean, but it turned out to be just a runoff facing the wrong direction. So it took a long time to back track and find my hostel. By the time I got back, it was almost time to meet Kim anyways, so I just had a moment to put my camera on the charger and grab a little extra cash from the bank.
I dunno. I thought it was funny.
The rest of the night was pretty much a fun, hangout night amongst friends, so I won’t go into it too much. I met Kim outside her apartment, we went out for Malaysian food, and then we went back to her place to relax with her friends and roommates, who all happened to be awesome people. I finally left at about 1am and had to take a cab back because it was pouring down rain, but that was alright. They were going to go hit a nightclub or two after that, but I pled tiredness and managed to not get sucked into that. Overall, a very fun day and night. The only downside was being dead tired the next day because all of my roommates had to catch the 7am ferry. I swear to God their bags were full of nothing but plastic bags and noise makers.
* * *
Okay, Day Two: not a whole lot to talk about here because it was miserable weather and incredibly cold. I spent a good portion of it at the Te Papa museum, one of the very best in New Zealand, and the other chunk of time online checking in with people. The first thing that I did was check out of Base Wellington and then check into Wellywood Backpackers a block over. With the music festival in mind, I had decided to book something myself for Sunday night, and Wellywood was one of the only ones with a definite vacancy. I wasn’t expecting much with only $23/night in a city of $28/night or more, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover how amazing it is inside. Not only did I get my own bed - a luxury that I had not had for almost a week due to the popularity of bunk beds - but it was also super comfy and next to a group of very quiet girls with jobs during the day. That guaranteed some good sleep every night. The place itself is also very cool because it keeps to a movie set theme. All of the walls have the pictures of famous directors / actors / writers on display in the style of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Peter Jackson’s is dead center as soon as you come up the stairs to the lobby. Then the areas off-limits to visitors and that need a key to access have “Filming in Progress, Do Not Disturb” signs all over them. Pretty sweet. Oh, and did I mention? The entire fourth floor has free wireless internet, a pool table, arcade games, a giant plasma screen TV, and a whole bunch of other random stuff. I took one look at the place and instantly booked myself in for another two nights. I highly recommend it for anyone passing through Wellington.
Wellywood Backpackers and its wall decorations
The museum was pretty fun, but it was hard to continue to be as excited about exhibits after four hours in there. I think my favorite parts were actually on the ground floor - the section about the animals native to New Zealand and their habitats. It started off with birds, insects, and various fish, and then it worked up to the larger mammals that were introduced by settlers later on. I think the giant skeleton of a pygmy blue whale hanging from the ceiling was a nice extra touch, and the whole area gave off a school field trip vibe. The really, ultra cool bit, however, was the body of the giant squid. I don’t think I need to tell anyone just how rare those things are, but Te Papa is the only place in the world with an actual preserved squid on display for the public. I guess a big fishing ship down in Antarctica picked it up by accident a few years ago and brought it back to New Zealand for research. The body was frozen until experts could assemble to begin examination, and then they only had a few hours after it thawed to study it. Then the tissue started to rot, so they had to inject it with formaldehyde and patch it back up for preservation. Now it’s on display in Te Papa, just a little banged up from the initial dissection and shrunken a bit, but basically intact. I put my hand down next to the glass just to see the size difference, and the thing is pretty gigantic. Fun fact: a giant squid has the largest eyeball of any animal on the planet. It’s the size of a soccer ball. This particular squid was a girl, which I guess was a bit of a let down for scientists since no one has ever found a male giant squid. They could look completely different for all we know. So that was the highlight of my trip there.
Exhibits in Te Papa, including the Giant Squid
The next couple of areas were cool, too, but slightly less interesting than the only giant squid on display in a museum. There was an area about plate tectonics and the makeup of the earth’s core, which was fairly informative, and another area completely dedicated to earthquakes, which I found a little uncomfortable right after Christchurch. Then there were areas dedicated to the Maori artifacts, European forestry and lifestyle, the Treaty of Waitangi, and various art displays. All of those were fun on their own, but, like I said, I was a bit tired towards the end and just skimmed through the last few floors. The whole thing ends on the roof with a nice panoramic view of the city. I stayed up there for a while and took some pictures before ultimately retreating to a warmer place to recover. After that, I basically spent the rest of the day in the public library and on my computer. It was just too cold to venture out for anything else. End of Day Two.
More of Te Papa, and over by the library - where I spent the rest of the day.
A little park and Molly Malones, an Irish pub that Sean Bean used to hang out in when they were filming.
* * *
Day Three: To be Continued! A whole post will be dedicated to Day Three because it was the most amazing, indescribably awesome day ever and deserves its own special nerd post. I think some of you can already guess, but I’ll save the details for now. Stay tuned for more!
* * *
Day Four: It was hard to top the rush of Day Three, but the fourth day started out strong with clear blue skies and the best weather Wellington’s had in quite some time. The entire city went out jogging that morning, which just made me feel lazy and out of shape. I grabbed a cup of coffee and took my time strolling around the city some more. I’d already hit the majority of the things I had wanted to do in Wellington, so it was just a matter of finding some more areas that I hadn’t really explored yet. I decided to aim for Parliament clear on the other side of town as a good marker.
I briefly entertained the thought of going to the wildlife preserve out of town and seeing some kiwi birds, but I wasn’t sure how to get all the way out there, and I was a little low on cash after the third day. As a result, I mostly just cruised around downtown and went a little bit further down the beach than I had in previous days to get some nice, sunny pictures. I’ll probably catch some kiwi birds on the way back or down on Stewart Island. It’s pretty common knowledge that “Windy Wellington” is overcast and rainy 70% of the time, but that 30% when it’s sunny is just gorgeous. My estimation of the commercial district improved dramatically after seeing it in the light and not viewing everything through a grey, gloomy light. I think half of the city, despite it being in the middle of the work week, emptied out to enjoy the nice weather that day.
Walking along by the docks and harbor
I eventually found something to do in the form of the Sea to Sky Museum down by the water front. I had heard about it and had entertained the idea of checking it out if I had time, but the schedule of events had put it pretty far down the list. I just happened to run into it as I was walking along the wharf, so I figured “what the heck” and went in there for about two hours. Overall, I’d say it was just about as interesting as Te Papa with the condensed history of Wellington and lost of information about its nautical history. I got to learn how to tie a “thieves knot” and found out about all sorts of shipwrecks that have happened in the Cook Strait over the years. I guess there was a pretty bad one in the 1970s that involved a ferry just like the one I was taking the next day, so that was a little bit creepy. I would have liked to have stayed there longer, but I didn’t want to spend the entire last day in a museum. I kept pressing on along the water.
Scenes along the waterfront
I finally reached the Parliament building around 3 o’ clock in the afternoon and had my lunch of a banana and milk in the grass just across the road. The most famous building of the government offices there is The Beehive, and I think it’s pretty obvious how it got its name. It’s where all of the politicians meet to discuss things and is one of the most recognizable buildings in New Zealand. Think of the White House and the Houses of Congress mixed into one thing and you’d be pretty much on the mark. I only had an hour to spend there because I had told Dad that I would be online to talk to him at 4:30 since he had something important to talk to me about. As a result, I kind of had to rush and cut my visit short, but I would love to go back sometime and stay longer. It was actually much more interesting than I was expecting. Unlike the U.S. politicians, who are constantly under scrutiny and have to be super evasive about all personal opinions to avoid being attacked, these guys just didn’t care. I got the sense that they all go out drinking together or something. For example, if someone stood up and asked a really a dumb question like, “Why was a national state of emergency declared following the February earthquake in Christchurch?” there would instantly be groans and mocking laughter interspersed with people grumbling, “For God’s sake, Joe, give it a rest!” Then they would all commiserate about a particularly annoying enmasse email that they had all received. Stuff like that made it pretty entertaining to watch. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay too long, though. Before long, it was 4pm, and I had to book it to be back to Wellywood by 4:30. I briefly considered taking a cab out there, but decided to just speed walk instead because of the financial costs.
Various angles of the Beehive and the park nearby
And that was pretty much all of Wellington - at least all of the important bits. I had to be out at the docks by 7am the next morning, so I arranged a shuttle to pick me up outside the hostel at 6:40 and for the clerk to give me back my $20 key deposit early. I’ll go into my journey to the South Island at a later date. Next, I’ll concentrate on filling you in on Day Three. Talk to you guys later!
First, about an hour or two north of Wellington, we stopped at a place called Otaki for a brief fuel change. I spent the entire fifteen or twenty minutes there running as far out into the countryside as I could get so that I could catch a glimpse of “Leaving the Shire” scenery. According to my handy LOTR Location Guide book, Otaki and Otaki Gorge are where they filmed Gandalf leaving the hobbits on the way to Bree, just outside of the Shire. Unfortunately, the place that they filmed at is a bit of a hike out there, and I didn’t have the time to go find the exact spot, but some of the surrounding area looked close enough for me to feel satisfied. Then it was onto Wellington, but I’ve already gone into that a little bit already.
Otaki and the surrounding countryside. Kind of like the edge of the Shire. Some reference shots as well.
After a brief tour of the main downtown, the Stray Bus (led by Rob and Rob) let us off at Base Wellington, right across the street from the Embassy Theater. For all of you not up on LOTR trivia, that’s the same theater where they had the world premier of Return of the King. So I was psyched to be right next to it. Emily and Sammi, the two girls that I did the Crossing with, had the same idea as I did - to just cruise through town and take tons of pictures. I didn’t really know where I was going, though, and I got the sense that they wanted to do their own thing, too, so we went our separate ways after checking in with reception. The Base Wellington hostel was pretty nice - much better than the Base in Auckland had been - so it was a shame that I didn’t really hang out there at all except to crash at night.
Area around my hostel
So I started off at the Embassy and got some great pics inside there, and then I just picked a direction at random to go off and explore. The oceanfront area seemed the most natural choice, so I started there and decided to work my way east towards the botanical gardens. I had heard from a few different people that there was some sort of music festival going on in Wellington that weekend, so I wasn’t that surprised to find the whole beach packed with drunken twenty-somethings and loud music blaring everywhere. I guess it was a New Zealand group named “Homegrown.” The whole area was pretty much closed off for ticket holders only, so I decided to steer clear of that and move into the city a bit. I had thought to do the music festival going on on Sunday because it was less of a “get drunk and blast music all night” kind of thing and more of a “cool music from around the world” kind of thing, but as luck would have it, it ended up raining quite a bit that day, so I didn’t get to go to that. Oh well.
Inside the Embassy Theater, where all the cast saw the premiere
Once I moved off the water and into the more metropolitan areas of Lambdon Quay and Courtney Place, the whole vibe of the place changed drastically. All of the shops and businesses gave it a more generic city feel, and it reminded me strongly of downtown San Francisco. I wandered around there for a while, taking lots of photos and getting thoroughly lost, before I happened upon the entrance to Cable Car Lane. That was probably the thing I was most looking forward to in Wellington, so it was a happy accident to just run into it. Basically, for $6 roundtrip, the little red cable car goes up the side of the hill that surrounds Wellington and docks at the entrance to the botanical gardens. Once you’re up above the city, there are some great scenic views of the harbor and every variety of fountain and garden you can imagine, plus a great big observatory in the center of it all. On the way up, you pass the brick buildings of Victoria University, bridges covered with vines, and cute little side streets filled with houses. It was nice to get out of the city and get some fresh air after being in a bus for so long.
Walking around in downtown Wellington
That whole area up there is just amazing - easily my favorite part of Wellington. It’s all so lush and green that it makes up for the really urban parts of the city. I really wanted to go and check out the observatory in the center of the gardens as well, but it was kind of late by that point, and I had plans for later that evening. Do you guys remember Kim? The other American girl that we met up with in Napier and followed us around for a few days? Well, she’s based in Wellington and had said that we were all welcome if we were ever in town, so I called in on that favor beforehand. I didn’t want to presume too much and ask for a place to stay (plus I didn’t know the living situation and thought it might be a bad idea if they all party late or something), but I mentioned that I would be around in case she wanted to get together for something. It just so happened that she had some sort of cocktail party going on that night anyways, so she invited me to come along if I wanted to. That was supposed to happen around 8 and it was already almost 5, so that didn’t give me a whole lot of time.
Shots of the gardens and surrounding area
Meanwhile, I had some time to kill in the Botanical Gardens. I chose one particular trail at random and followed it for a good twenty minutes or so before it split into three other paths. Then I just kept picking a direction on a whim and kept going deeper into the trees. That was pretty cool, I have to say. There were all these cicadas making a racket in the branches up above, and I got to see my very first weta - a major achievement for a life-long nerd. Well, I actually think it was the exoskeleton of a weta, but I’m going to call that a win. It’s hard to tell on a map, but those gardens are huge. I wandered around there for a good couple of hours, and I still didn’t see all of it. On one side, there’s a big gazebo and duck pond for weddings and events, and way up on the top, there’s a thing called Druid’s Hill with a big sculpture thing in the shape of a cylinder. Supposedly, you’re supposed to get inside the center of it and be able to hear the “sounds of the city” magnified through the metal, but I actually thought it was more muted in there than on the outside. It was still cool.
Druid;s Hill sculpture and the trip down on the cable car
At about that time, I got a text from Kim saying that things were going to start rolling soon, so I started heading back in the general direction of the cable car. It took a little bit of trial and error to find the right path because they all look the same after a while, but I eventually got back down the hill. I did, however, manage to get lost downtown for a good portion of an hour on my way home. You see, Wellington is, obviously, right on the ocean, so as long as you know where the water is, it’s relatively easy to get to where you need to go by location. In my case, I needed to head due west towards Courtney Place, but there was a little canal running parallel to Cuba Street that messed with my sense of direction. I thought it was the ocean, but it turned out to be just a runoff facing the wrong direction. So it took a long time to back track and find my hostel. By the time I got back, it was almost time to meet Kim anyways, so I just had a moment to put my camera on the charger and grab a little extra cash from the bank.
I dunno. I thought it was funny.
The rest of the night was pretty much a fun, hangout night amongst friends, so I won’t go into it too much. I met Kim outside her apartment, we went out for Malaysian food, and then we went back to her place to relax with her friends and roommates, who all happened to be awesome people. I finally left at about 1am and had to take a cab back because it was pouring down rain, but that was alright. They were going to go hit a nightclub or two after that, but I pled tiredness and managed to not get sucked into that. Overall, a very fun day and night. The only downside was being dead tired the next day because all of my roommates had to catch the 7am ferry. I swear to God their bags were full of nothing but plastic bags and noise makers.
* * *
Okay, Day Two: not a whole lot to talk about here because it was miserable weather and incredibly cold. I spent a good portion of it at the Te Papa museum, one of the very best in New Zealand, and the other chunk of time online checking in with people. The first thing that I did was check out of Base Wellington and then check into Wellywood Backpackers a block over. With the music festival in mind, I had decided to book something myself for Sunday night, and Wellywood was one of the only ones with a definite vacancy. I wasn’t expecting much with only $23/night in a city of $28/night or more, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover how amazing it is inside. Not only did I get my own bed - a luxury that I had not had for almost a week due to the popularity of bunk beds - but it was also super comfy and next to a group of very quiet girls with jobs during the day. That guaranteed some good sleep every night. The place itself is also very cool because it keeps to a movie set theme. All of the walls have the pictures of famous directors / actors / writers on display in the style of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Peter Jackson’s is dead center as soon as you come up the stairs to the lobby. Then the areas off-limits to visitors and that need a key to access have “Filming in Progress, Do Not Disturb” signs all over them. Pretty sweet. Oh, and did I mention? The entire fourth floor has free wireless internet, a pool table, arcade games, a giant plasma screen TV, and a whole bunch of other random stuff. I took one look at the place and instantly booked myself in for another two nights. I highly recommend it for anyone passing through Wellington.
Wellywood Backpackers and its wall decorations
The museum was pretty fun, but it was hard to continue to be as excited about exhibits after four hours in there. I think my favorite parts were actually on the ground floor - the section about the animals native to New Zealand and their habitats. It started off with birds, insects, and various fish, and then it worked up to the larger mammals that were introduced by settlers later on. I think the giant skeleton of a pygmy blue whale hanging from the ceiling was a nice extra touch, and the whole area gave off a school field trip vibe. The really, ultra cool bit, however, was the body of the giant squid. I don’t think I need to tell anyone just how rare those things are, but Te Papa is the only place in the world with an actual preserved squid on display for the public. I guess a big fishing ship down in Antarctica picked it up by accident a few years ago and brought it back to New Zealand for research. The body was frozen until experts could assemble to begin examination, and then they only had a few hours after it thawed to study it. Then the tissue started to rot, so they had to inject it with formaldehyde and patch it back up for preservation. Now it’s on display in Te Papa, just a little banged up from the initial dissection and shrunken a bit, but basically intact. I put my hand down next to the glass just to see the size difference, and the thing is pretty gigantic. Fun fact: a giant squid has the largest eyeball of any animal on the planet. It’s the size of a soccer ball. This particular squid was a girl, which I guess was a bit of a let down for scientists since no one has ever found a male giant squid. They could look completely different for all we know. So that was the highlight of my trip there.
Exhibits in Te Papa, including the Giant Squid
The next couple of areas were cool, too, but slightly less interesting than the only giant squid on display in a museum. There was an area about plate tectonics and the makeup of the earth’s core, which was fairly informative, and another area completely dedicated to earthquakes, which I found a little uncomfortable right after Christchurch. Then there were areas dedicated to the Maori artifacts, European forestry and lifestyle, the Treaty of Waitangi, and various art displays. All of those were fun on their own, but, like I said, I was a bit tired towards the end and just skimmed through the last few floors. The whole thing ends on the roof with a nice panoramic view of the city. I stayed up there for a while and took some pictures before ultimately retreating to a warmer place to recover. After that, I basically spent the rest of the day in the public library and on my computer. It was just too cold to venture out for anything else. End of Day Two.
More of Te Papa, and over by the library - where I spent the rest of the day.
A little park and Molly Malones, an Irish pub that Sean Bean used to hang out in when they were filming.
* * *
Day Three: To be Continued! A whole post will be dedicated to Day Three because it was the most amazing, indescribably awesome day ever and deserves its own special nerd post. I think some of you can already guess, but I’ll save the details for now. Stay tuned for more!
* * *
Day Four: It was hard to top the rush of Day Three, but the fourth day started out strong with clear blue skies and the best weather Wellington’s had in quite some time. The entire city went out jogging that morning, which just made me feel lazy and out of shape. I grabbed a cup of coffee and took my time strolling around the city some more. I’d already hit the majority of the things I had wanted to do in Wellington, so it was just a matter of finding some more areas that I hadn’t really explored yet. I decided to aim for Parliament clear on the other side of town as a good marker.
I briefly entertained the thought of going to the wildlife preserve out of town and seeing some kiwi birds, but I wasn’t sure how to get all the way out there, and I was a little low on cash after the third day. As a result, I mostly just cruised around downtown and went a little bit further down the beach than I had in previous days to get some nice, sunny pictures. I’ll probably catch some kiwi birds on the way back or down on Stewart Island. It’s pretty common knowledge that “Windy Wellington” is overcast and rainy 70% of the time, but that 30% when it’s sunny is just gorgeous. My estimation of the commercial district improved dramatically after seeing it in the light and not viewing everything through a grey, gloomy light. I think half of the city, despite it being in the middle of the work week, emptied out to enjoy the nice weather that day.
Walking along by the docks and harbor
I eventually found something to do in the form of the Sea to Sky Museum down by the water front. I had heard about it and had entertained the idea of checking it out if I had time, but the schedule of events had put it pretty far down the list. I just happened to run into it as I was walking along the wharf, so I figured “what the heck” and went in there for about two hours. Overall, I’d say it was just about as interesting as Te Papa with the condensed history of Wellington and lost of information about its nautical history. I got to learn how to tie a “thieves knot” and found out about all sorts of shipwrecks that have happened in the Cook Strait over the years. I guess there was a pretty bad one in the 1970s that involved a ferry just like the one I was taking the next day, so that was a little bit creepy. I would have liked to have stayed there longer, but I didn’t want to spend the entire last day in a museum. I kept pressing on along the water.
Scenes along the waterfront
I finally reached the Parliament building around 3 o’ clock in the afternoon and had my lunch of a banana and milk in the grass just across the road. The most famous building of the government offices there is The Beehive, and I think it’s pretty obvious how it got its name. It’s where all of the politicians meet to discuss things and is one of the most recognizable buildings in New Zealand. Think of the White House and the Houses of Congress mixed into one thing and you’d be pretty much on the mark. I only had an hour to spend there because I had told Dad that I would be online to talk to him at 4:30 since he had something important to talk to me about. As a result, I kind of had to rush and cut my visit short, but I would love to go back sometime and stay longer. It was actually much more interesting than I was expecting. Unlike the U.S. politicians, who are constantly under scrutiny and have to be super evasive about all personal opinions to avoid being attacked, these guys just didn’t care. I got the sense that they all go out drinking together or something. For example, if someone stood up and asked a really a dumb question like, “Why was a national state of emergency declared following the February earthquake in Christchurch?” there would instantly be groans and mocking laughter interspersed with people grumbling, “For God’s sake, Joe, give it a rest!” Then they would all commiserate about a particularly annoying enmasse email that they had all received. Stuff like that made it pretty entertaining to watch. Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay too long, though. Before long, it was 4pm, and I had to book it to be back to Wellywood by 4:30. I briefly considered taking a cab out there, but decided to just speed walk instead because of the financial costs.
Various angles of the Beehive and the park nearby
And that was pretty much all of Wellington - at least all of the important bits. I had to be out at the docks by 7am the next morning, so I arranged a shuttle to pick me up outside the hostel at 6:40 and for the clerk to give me back my $20 key deposit early. I’ll go into my journey to the South Island at a later date. Next, I’ll concentrate on filling you in on Day Three. Talk to you guys later!