Day 79-83: Wellington 0 Days — Heading Outbound

Thursday, February 16

This morning I walked along the waterfront before the Te Papa Museum opened at 10 am. I finished looking at the Maori items and history on the fourth floor and checked out the Marae one last time. Then I went down to the third and second floors. They had a lot of natural history items on those floors. My favorite displays were the giant squid, an outdoor area and the museums base isolators exhibit you reach from the outside.

The giant squid is pretty depressing to look at, but they have a video explaining what happened. In the antarctic there is a fishing and research vessel. They were fishing and the giant squid grabbed onto one of the fish and was pulled up when they pulled the fish in. It was injured and wouldn't have survived so they brought it aboard and froze it. Once they got back, scientists had to defrost it and study it before it began decomposing. As soon as that happened they had to preserve it to go on display. It's the only giant squid on display in the world. It looks rather gross and deflated on display, but they have a little 3-D video recreation of what it would look like swimming that makes it easier to imagine what it would look like in real life.

The outdoor area of the museum has plants, rocks, a cave and other natural items along a path with explanation panels. I've never seen anything like it in a museum before and really liked the idea.

New Zealand has a lot of earthquakes, so the entire museum is on base isolators to try to keep everything safe if an earthquake strikes. When you leave the museum you can go down a set of stairs and see one for real. And see how they separated the building from the ground.

After finally finishing the museum I walked along the waterfront and talked to my family. Then I rode the famous Wellington Cable Car up to the botanical gardens and walked down to parliament. At the top of the cable car ride there was a free little cable car museum and an interesting perfumery.

I think the route I took was part of the 30-kilometers of the TA I skipped on the train ride from Porirua. The gardens were nice and I got to parliament in time for the final (free!) tour of the day. Hooray! There weren't any pictures allowed, but it was interesting to see.

They quickly took us to the beehive, or the executive building. It's so strong it doesn't need to be on base isolators and the New Zealand emergency center (that's not the exact name, but that's the idea of whatever it's called) is below it. After that they walked us over to parliament. It was in session so we didn't get to see the main room, but we saw a meeting room and some artwork. They showed us the parliamentary library, and the base isolators below parliament too. I really enjoyed it.

New Zealand's parliament only has one house, a House of Representatives, and they are elected using a mixed member proportional representation voting system. When Kiwis go to vote, they cast a vote for the party they prefer and for the individual person they would like to represent them. Then the house is divided based on what percentage of the vote each party won. I don't completely understand how it works but I want to read more about it. With this system one party very very rarely has power, so at least two parties always have to work together to get something done. Seems smart to me!

When the tour was over I went to watch them in session for a few minutes. They were talking about laws for election advertising. When they were done, someone came and placed a huge gold-colored mace on the table.

After visiting parliament I walked to the nearby New World. Gail and Bronwyn had told me it was really big and had lots of great stuff. They were right! The bakery even had chocolates they had made in store!

I walked the waterfront most of the way back to the hostel and it looked like a rowing race or practice was going on. It was fun to watch! I was pretty tired so I went back to the hostel, ate dinner and relaxed there.

Friday, February 17

Sara woke up this morning and was feeling pretty ill, so I ran to New World to get her some groceries. When she was feeling slightly better and resting I walked to the New Zealand Archives to see the Treaty of Waitangi and then went to the nearby St Paul's Church to look at the sanctuary and stained glass. Then I checked out a photo exhibit close to the hostel, but the fire alarm went off so I just went back to the hostel.

I wanted to check out some ideas for Sam and Lauren's trip to New Zealand before I talked to them in the evening. After looking some things up, I went to the Cuba Street evening market to get some food with Creya. Jaysen was there too! I talked with them for a bit before walking back to the hostel to talk with Sam and Lauren. It was great to talk with them and I relaxed the rest of the night.

Saturday, February 18

Creya and I started our day going to the Wellington Chocolate Factory. Our timing was perfect! They only do one tour a day on Saturdays and let us join. It was $15 but it included a hot chocolate and tasting of most of their chocolates so we figured it was worth it (the hot chocolates are $5 and their chocolate bars are between $12 and $16 a piece, so it was the only way we could afford to try them). It was well worth it. We got to try beans, some chocolate that was getting the sugar mixed in, bits of their delicious finished chocolate and finished with probably the best hot chocolate I've ever had.

After the chocolate factory we met Sara at the Saturday underground markets and I went back to the hostel to try to plan Sam and Lauren and my trip next month. I've been hearing so much about how beautiful Abel-Tasman is, so I think we can go there and skip a few days of the TA trail between Boyle River and Arthur's Pass.

One I had a good outlined plan, Creya and I went to a comedy show at the Ivy bar that was being held for the Wellington Fringe Festival. After that I was ready for bed.

Sunday, February 19

I woke up and went to the Sunday vegetable market across the street from the hostel. There was a big race going on and the road was closed to vehicle traffic. I got some veggies and eggs and spent most of the rest of the day running errands and planning for Sam and Lauren's visit. I had to get a fuel canister, food for a bounce box, and a few other things.

Creya flies to the South Island tomorrow to meet her friends before she continues the TA, so the three of us wanted to get dinner together. There was a good fish and chips place nearby Creya had heard about. It was called the Chippery and it was delicious. It was so crowded we took our food back to the nearby hostel to eat it.

Monday, February 20

I spent the morning going to the DOC and finding maps for the Abel Tasman tracks we want to hike in March. Then I sorted my things into a food box, a bounce box and stuff to mail home before heading to the post office.

Sara and I said goodbye to Creya around 11 when she had to leave to catch her flight. It's always so sad to say goodbye to people!

After saying goodbye I walked with all my stuff that needed mailed to the post office. I got back in time to book a few things for Sam and Lauren's visit (I'm getting so excite for it!), before Sara and I went to a theater off Cuba Street to watch Manchester by the Sea. Movies in Wellington have been the most expensive in New Zealand, at least in the towns I've been to. And I wasn't really sure what I thought of the movie, but it was fun to see it with Sara. She lived where it was filmed.

We got back and I packed my backpack so I could leave early tomorrow without making too much noise, then Sara and I ate some dinner in the hostel and talked about podcasts. It was a good way to end my time in Wellington.