April 2

Awoke  to overcast skies and rain.  Breakfast at the hotel and the take the bus for city sights.  Wellington is the capital and is built on a series of hills backed by mountains around a natural volcanic harbor.  It lies between two of the world’s most active fault lines.  Their building code has required that all buildings be reinforced with many on new technology of movable discs underground.  First stop is the Cable car museum and the station for the cable cars.  The museum is very nice and the views from this high point are very nice even though the clouds hang low.  Much like San Fran there are old Victorian houses sitting close together perched up and down the hills.  The vegetation is lush with lots of ferns and hotter climate trees mixed in with hard woods especially big cypress and given the amount of moss it looks to be a wet climate.  We stop at Lady Norwood’s Garden that has a planned rose garden of all varieties, greenhouse, etc.  The hills above us are full of low hanging cloud into the trees.  Next stop are their government buildings.  Auckland was the capital at one time but moved to Wellington to be more representative of the whole country.  The buildings range from the Prime Minister’s ‘beehive’ modern to old style Georgian architecture.  This area also has two large universities.  Victoria Uni is mixed into the government area.  We pass by waterfront, part working fleet and shipping and part recreational.  The primary areas and their various activities are pointed out.  It’s not a hard city to navigate.  We are dropped off at NZ version of the Smithsonian, Te Papa.  A beautiful new facility with state of the art interactive displays.  Everything from flora and fauna to earthquake and volcano activity and a huge display of the Maori culture.  There is an outdoor bushwalk complete with swinging rope bridge and waterfalls.  Much like the parliament building in Edinburgh where all signage was in English and Gaelic, Te Papa signage is English and Maori, even the no smoking signs.  The Maoris have been here for less than 1000 years.  The Treaty with the English was done badly and they are still fighting for their right even today.  Their culture has so many similarities with Alaska and Hawaiians it’s hard not to see it.  It is the style here for young men, not just Maori, to wear their hair in ‘man buns’.  And the tattoos that we have seen in Ak native and those of the Maori are very similar.  Tatoos have expanded in all societies today.  Their craft is in wood, grass weaving, use of jadite or nephrite like Ak and Pukoa shells.  They have been a very physically violent culture in war; women are revered and men who were captured were eaten.  They still take warrior training but they are not cannibals.  We choose to walk back in our own time so we continue on walking by the harbor.  There is a festival going on and a huge local craft market.  Food trucks are lined up to serve, nothing too different from home.  There is live music.  We enter the market that is underground and see very interesting items, all NZ made.  We find a Maori owned craft store and find out it is only one of two in all of Wellington.  The storekeeper is a Samoan woman who is married to a Maori man.  She talked about his family and warrior training he had to go through.  He and his parents own the store.  The woman we met makes pukoa shell necklaces.  They are so reasonable we buy two!  And we have met the artist.  Along our walk a Scottish piper is playing in full kilt.  Lots of people all around, many young and single.  There are sail boats, kayakers, rowers and boogey boards in the harbor.  The rain has stopped and the clouds are lifting.  We find a restaurant called Shed 5, it looks like a crab shack kind of place with wood siding.  Inside it’s linen table cloths etc but we felt very welcome.  The barman let us sample various NZ craft beers and found an IPA by Emerson that we really liked.  We took advantage of their 2 dozen for the price of one fresh oyster special. Not just any oysters but Bluff oysters from the bottom of the south island, very cold water.  These are not farmed but grow in the sand. They are huge, fresh and very rich.  We sit by the water and they let us open the window for the breeze.  Walked over to the old Railway Station, still used for passenger trains.  Not as ornate as other stations we have been in but reminded us so much of Great Britain.  Walked over to the Benchwarmers Pub located across the street from the parliament buildings.  This pub is frequented by the government gang.  There are life size puppets (caricatures) of various govt. officials.  A short walk to the oldest pub in NZ (with continuous license to sell), the Thistle Inn. They have kept the outside intact and done some modernization inside.  Many pictures of its history are on the wall, an original wall has been maintained and a Plexiglas panel in the floor shows the original cellar and foundation, still being used.  The barman lets us sample some of the NZ beers, we like Cassell’s PA.  Walk back to the hotel and see a movie camera in operation with a chase scene between a Mini Cooper and Police cars right there on a main street.  There are uni students everywhere.  It’s Saturday and they are out for a good time.  We take the cable car up to the view point we were at this morning.  The clouds have cleared for a very good view over the city and out over the harbor.  The cable car goes through tunnels that have light displays inside.  We walk over to the Botanical gardens and see the various observatories.  There is a very nice center with a planetarium but we’re too tired to stay.  Back down the cable car and dinner at the hotel since it is the easiest.  The hotel is built on the side of the hill so we can take the elevator from the lower street up to the hotel.  Need to repack and get ready for tomorrow.  We go to Roturua and will be staying overnight with one other couple at a local family home.  Can’t take all our bags, the tour will handle everything and we can just take an overnight bag.  Time for bed!