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School kids learning to paddle kayaks |
Today we are flying to Wellington at 9:30 so we got up early and got an Uber at 6:45. It took us about 45 minutes to get to the airport, so we had over an hour to kill once we got there. We hadn't eaten breakfast and I said I was fine with McD's. Mike went off to find something else but wound up joining me for a McMuffin. That's twice now I've gotten Mike to eat McD's in a foreign country surrounded by good food. The last time was Florence when we missed our train. This time was just laziness.
There were 2 things we found really odd today. First, all of the food vendors were outside of security. If we'd gone in through security first, we'd have found nothing to eat but a few vending machines. Second, no one asked to see any ID. They didn't even ask for our tickets. Just straight to putting our things in bins and walking through metal detectors.
Maybe this is what it's like to live in a country that isn't hated around the world.
When we got back to our gate, it was empty. Not a soul around so we browsed the internet and I worked a bit on the blog.
When it came time to board, there were still just a few people around so we boarded early. We had across-the-isle seating but since the plane was so empty we each took a window seat. There wasn't much to watch since we flew mostly a few miles offshore and there were constant clouds over the land.
After we deplaned in Wellington we rented another car and headed into the city. Mike picked a route that kept him mostly out of the city with only a few turns. We checked into our hotel, then headed off for lunch at Pravda. Yes, like the Russian newspaper.
I got chipotle fried chicken pieces (chicken nuggets) and Mike got a burger.
Afterward we headed for a short walk to the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (aka Te Pap Museum). One our way, we passed a small bay where kids were learning to paddle kayaks. I loved the one kid that kept sticking his paddle in the water then quickly lifting it to let the water splash down on himself. The instructor was trying really hard to keep them on task but it wasn't working.
Te Papa Museum is supposed to be the best museum in the country. I'm not really going to cover everything since it's a museum and photography was forbidden in much of it and I'd never get the details right anyway.
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| Te Papa museum |
The top 2 floors were less appealing to me. The top was just an overlook of the harbor, the second floor down was modern art displays, the kind where a massive room has just one or two small exhibits to let you fully contemplate a few inches of art. It really wasn't my thing.
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| Selfie from the roof of Te Papa |
Floor 4 started to be much more interesting. New Zealand was formed when the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840. There was a version in English and a version in Māori but the 2 versions had some variations. The English version gave the Queen sovereignty where the Māori left the chiefs as sovereign. Many arguments and oppressions resulted from those differences. The museum had displays showing those differences and how they effected the Māori people.
In 1940, 100 years after the signing there was a Waka gathering to commemorate the signing. Waka means canoe and many hundred canoes paddled together to celebrate New Zealand.
The huge 120ft Ngātokimatawhaorua waka was built and paddled as part of that celebration. Then in 1990, a second massive waka was held and the Ngātokimatawhaorua was restored and paddled. That waka now sits in the museum and will probably be taken out in 14 years for the next commemorative celebration. There were a lot of pictures of the 2nd waka.
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| 120 foot Waka |
The museum had displays about all the species that have gone extinct since the arrival of people on the island. The most prominent is the Moa. It was a huge flightless bird, much like an ostrich but looked even bigger and tougher. It was hunted to extinction by the Māori about a thousand years ago. The skeletons were huge and much more dinosaur-like than I'd seen before.
There were a lot of displays about the animals, bugs, birds, and plants that have come into New Zealand either intentionally or accidentally over the years. Some have become real problems, like the stoat. It's kind of like a mongoose only smaller. Stoats were brought in for hunting and to control rabbits. But most birds in New Zealand nest on the ground and stoats have decimated the bird populations, especially the kiwi bird.
Deer is another species brought intentionally and has become a major pest destroying crops and forests because they have no natural predators on the islands except for us.
One really cool display was a video about early population of the island. It used a Disneyland like effect, called Pepper's Ghost, to place a young girl on the deck of a large Māori raft. She told the story of the crossing with various cousins coming in and out of the hut on deck. It was pretty cool and seemed like it would entertain kids very well.
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| Taking a Diet Coke break |
I was a little surprised and disappointed at how few Māori artifacts we saw in the museum. Most things were from neighboring lands like the Cooke Islands. A quick google search showed that the lack of artifacts was due to a combination of cultural practices and colonization. The Māori didn't build homes, tools, and utensils with the intention of getting centuries of use out of them. They were short term things mostly built from wood. And what things they did have were often taken by colonists or destroyed as new cities and farms were built.
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| Cool display, don't remember what it was |
We walked into an earthquake simulator that looked like a small room in a home. There was a video of a family on a hot summer day welcoming us and offering lemonade. Then the earthquake started. The room shook pretty good but I have no idea how realistic it was. The family told us to get under tables or get outside. It didn't last long and the family did a quick check for damage then went on with their day.
We looked around until we'd seen everything on the last 2 floors then made a quick pass through the gift shop and left.
As we walked back to the hotel, the wind was really whipping around us. Mike googled wind and Wellington. According to google, Wellington is one of if not the windiest cities on earth. It sits at 40 degrees south which is often called the Roaring 40s. It is a band around the earth with particularly high winds that constantly blow. Couple that with the wind being squeezed between the North and South islands and the hills causing turbulence and you get a place with the average wind speed of 27 kilometers per hour. That's pretty fast and it's the norm.
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| Māori parata (carved head) |
For dinner we chose Boulcott Street Bistro for dinner. Another modern fusion place. It was near the hotel but up a very steep set of steps so we opted to call an Uber rather than build a sweat climbing the whole way. It turned out to be in a converted house. Lots of people in a couple of small rooms. It took 45 minutes to get seated. Mike got braised lamb and I got seared tuna. Mike's was great but mine was way over cooked. Tuna is supposed to be nearly raw in the middle but mine was almost well done. It tasted fine, much like any other fish that's fully cooked, but a prime tuna steak should have the same fresh taste of good sashimi. It just not what I was anticipating.
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| Boulcott Street Bistro |
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| Mike said I looked disgusted at my over cooked tuna steak |
From the restaurant we had to walk down the very steep road. We passed several groups making the trek up the road which made me very grateful that we took an uber. Before going to the hotel we wanted to get a few things from a shop. Google suggested a place that was already closed so we asked a group of teenagers walking past. They were surprisingly helpful and gave good directions.
Steps for the day was 12,000 or 5.4 miles
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