Windy Windy Wellington

Hi hi. Some of you may know, I went to Wellington for a couple of days with my flatmates, Nana and Mee Siew (Wawa was in Nelson, and did not join us), and friends, Jeevan and Azahari. I flew there, but the others trained, ferried, and drove up.

I got there much earlier, maybe four hours earlier than everyone else, so I went to check in at the backpackers, and then wandered around Wellington. First I went to the Railway Station because it was right across from the backpackers. It is a beautiful building. Here is a photo from our room in the backpackers (it was a room for six, but it was just the five of us, so we had our own room and a bathroom to ourselves).

And then a photo from inside, which made Nana jump up and down. She is so adorable.

Actually, as I walked in, I was thinking, "This is an old school train station. It would be sweet if they had a Platform 9 3/4, because this is just the sort of station I imagine it being in." And then there it was in front of me. Unfortunately, it is not after Platform NINE, which would make more sense, but it's okay, A for Effort. They spend all of their fantasy books-turn-movies concentration on Lord of the Rings, so their Harry Potter is a bit rusty.

Then, I tried to find the wharf. I was walking down Featherston Street, wondering how likely it was I was going the wrong direction, when I realised that it was a beautiful day. Featherston Street runs from the Backpackers more or less North-South, South leading to the water, North leading to... the wop wops, I guess. (Wop wops = Kiwi boonies). So I turned twelve noon to the sun, found halfway between twelve and the hour hand, and boom, North (I know I mentioned this in the fieldtrip post, but I don't know how in-depth the explanation was. This is the trick Tim taught me to find North when the sun is out). I was definitely going the wrong way, so I turned around and found my way to the wharf!

I went to the Museum of Wellington, City & Sea, which was a very respectable museum. I sort of thought that being in such close proximity to Te Papa (National Museum of New Zealand) would give other museums in the vicinity a bit of a complex, but it was an adorable museum. Here is a photo of Paddy the Wanderer. Based on the description, Paddy was to Wellington as Patsy Ann was to Juneau.

After the museum, I continued down the wharf. Many things were closed for Easter Monday, but some of the small galleries and shops and stuff were still open. There was a playground. If I had been with Tamar and Ellen, there would have been some crazy photos, but I was by myself, so all I have is this docile one:

Eventually, I came to Civic Centre, which is where the i-site and stuff is for Wellington. Everything was closed, including the huge library :( , but I saw this on the side of one of the buildings in the square, and it made me laugh. Note the distinction between "useful" and "fine."


Shortly after that, the others arrived, and we went back to the hostel to get them situated. We went to dinner at a yummy yummy Malaysian restaurant. We got three dishes to share, and all of them were delicious. We had mee goreng (goreng means fried, so that one was... fried noodle, I think?), nasi goreng (fried rice), and nasi lemak (literally "fat rice," but it's coconut rice. That came with a beef dish that was my favorite, combined with the coconut flavour in the rice).

After dinner, we drove up to the Mt. Victoria lookout. From there, we could see lights all around us 360 degrees. I reckon you are supposed to go up during the day (the stairs were not lit...), but it was so spectacular at night. It made it harder to get a good photo, but it was definitely worth it. I increased exposure time as high as it would go on my camera, but of course that made all the photos come out fuzzy... Here's one:

That one is probably the least fuzzy. This one is also fuzzy, but I really really love it. I think it might be my favourite photo of the entire exchange thus far:

From left to right, although it won't mean much to you, is Jeevan, Mee Siew, Nana, and Azahari. I love it a lot, partially because I just think it is cool, but also because over dinner, we had a conversation about recognizing people from afar by the way they carry themselves (Jeevan said he can always tell when it is me because I talk with a lot of gestures and move in a "bubbly" way, whatever that means). Without knowing them, you wouldn't be able to tell, but all of them are standing in their own classic stances. I don't think they would have done it if they had known I was taking the picture.

This morning, we walked to Te Papa, and I have a handful of photos from Te Papa (many of the coolest exhibitions were no photography - my favourite was the New Zealand Artists exhibition, because most of it was modern art. My second favourite? THE COLOSSAL SQUID THEY HAD ON DISPLAY FROM ANTARCTICA), but to not exhaust the post, I have included just this one, which is mostly for Dad's benefit:


This is one of the cannons from Captain James Cook's Endeavour. They had to throw it overboard when the ship got stuck in some shallow water, but it was eventually retrieved, encrusted with a foot of coral around it. I just heard "Sand and broken shell!" in my head. They had a copy of the map that Cook drew up from his voyage, but it was about a bazillion dollars (okay, only fifty...) and I didn't buy it.

Then we ate lunch, followed by the Beehive (like our Pentagon). We took a tour through the parliament buildings, which was very nice. Our tour guide was from California, and I didn't realise he had an American accent until halfway through the tour. It just doesn't register as an accent to me yet.

That's the Beehive! I tried to follow the political talk, but there were a lot of things that I didn't understand. There are seven political parties in New Zealand, all represented in the parliament, and they all have a whip, and then there's the mace, and you can't walk in front of the throne or you're thrown out of parliament.

After that, we went to the airport to drop me off. The others are going on to Rotorua. The flight home was pleasant, and I got home right at the same time as Wawa, so we traded stories.

That's all! Next post, unless some madness happens before Friday, will be about Rarotonga!!! Oh, and if you're wondering, that first photo? YES, that IS a Prius taxi. I LOVE NEW ZEALAND.