Day 48: (30 June 2011):
- Wake up ~11am. Woke up to housekeeping sounds. All beds other than mine made. All Meet English looking for job here. Nice person.
- New World: get Samosa (chicken), bacon "brunch cake" & giant sausauge for breakfast. Unhealthy & lots of food, but ~10. Could get proper breakfast for that.
- Decide walk down Oriental Pde & maybe Mount Victoria.
- Very nice area, with beaches. But rain get progressively heavier.
- Talk to parents.
- Turn back eventually, decide go to Te Papa or Parliament.
- Beautiful sewer covers in Wellington.
- Lots of joggers even in the bad weather.
- Walk along water to Te Papa. Feel very comfortable in modern country again. Admire/amaze.
- Girl on back of bike with mom, singing loudly "rain, rain, go away.
- See the earthquake dampers at Te Papa. Small door & small exhibit showing dampers.
- Rain less. Modern building. Sculptures between Te Papa & old-looking theatre.
- Walk by old boat crane. ASB arena, etc. Nice waterfront. Bld with stock tickers.
- Walk into city. Nice bustling centre. Many streets, mid-level hum. Much better character than Auckland's CBD.
- Text to Steffan earlier, Wellington much worse Weather than Fiji. He respond after coming out of watching TF3. He coming on Friday! (In Wanganui, although not made clear).
- Hostel YHA, close to Base, very close to Te Papa.
- Walk up to Parliament, although entered wrong side first. Clock struck hour when walking around to look for main entrance.
- Public entrance, Security check. Check coat, bag, cell phone & camera.
- A couple & young daughter arrive same time. Radio guide, can meet in legislative wing.
- Took us to legislative wing. Ladder on stairs, took us up old-style lift, built long time ago. Surprisingly smooth & quiet.
- Meet with tour as they walk from executive wing: "Beehive."
- Tour: Hallways: pictures of all assemblies (2 from Auckland), All PMs & colonial governors.
- Room with Maori decorations. Carving to represent each iwi. Important dieties. Told this committee puts out ads in paper, all responses read to committee. Can request oral hearing. Protection of queen when speaking there. Cannot use what they say to incriminate, embarass, etc. Very cool system. "Most direct form of representation."
- Earthquake piles. Entire building cut in half, including walls, stairs.
- Lower & empty upper house. Royal family cannot enter lower house, but can command audience.
- Let kid sit in PM's seat, give question sheet. Speaker of the house come in, showing a family of Asians around. Speaker's assistant walk by outside.
- When get back to Beehive, tour over. Another tour just watched video & go upstairs. According to guide, didn't miss much, just offices.
- Guide interesting character. Sarcastic, a bit overly confident (earthquake measures, talking to each Chch person) but nice.
- Parliament library. Larger underground portion. Round vs. square: opposite of Canada's library & executive branch. Outside under renovation scaffolding.
- Walk along road & found cable car. Weather a bit better, no rain. Some drizzle.
- One way ticket as person says can walk back through botannical gardens.
- Tram/cablecar remind me of ones in Japan. Seats tilted for slope.
- 4 stops total. One stop @ university. Pass through uni. by ball field.
- Cute museum at top (small donation). Old cable car (can climb on). Pics & models of private cable cars. Winding room model.
- Hot chocolate. Should have got mochachino. Ask if weather always this bad in winter, he says usually worse.
- Walk down the marked city path through botannical gardens.
- See the neighbourhood, looks nice.
- Observatory. Nice deck close to it, but no much views.
- "Treehouse." Lower & much higher upper level. Nice observation deck.
- Chinese embassy?
- Duck pond.
- Cute house thing. Labelled gardens & signs.
- Rose garden & greenhouse. Nice, but not stunning tropical plants. Fish (follow me! Food?) pond inside.
- Keep bumping into an Asian girl tourist.
- Japanese-like garden with waterfall. 2 ppl smoking weed there.
- Nice quiet neighbourhood close to centre. Old tombstones with modern city in background. A few monuments: large one to Seddon. Tombstones extend to skyscrapers. Clearly see people inside working from hill beside bld. Freeway cuts through graveyard?
- Arrive Te Papa ~4:30pm. Good thing for Thr. late hours. 9 rather than 5.
- Explore Te Papa until 8:30pm. Some poetry event on 5th floor. Very polished. Lots of info packed into a small (actually pretty large) place. Great for children. Calk to marae, but some singing with a few people going on, so did not stay.
- Colossial squid. Go out t o outdoor section, but close when dark, told to return, was afraid museum was closing. Relieved when they say not.
- MAF display. Parrot mating helmet. Ponamu. Immigration. Kiwiana.
- The Maori houses & stones. Direct (?) message from iwi. Message brag about their stuff in museum.
- Feeding funnel, never seen that before.
- Moriori.
- Old & new paintings & art. Ceramic display (who in that?). Pink & white terrace paintings.
- Artefacts: mat from Samoa. Feathered cape given to Cook by Hawaiians.
- Polished presentations with motion sensors, etc.
- Saw too much. Decide come back tomorrow to finish up.
- Wonton & BBQ pork noodles for dinner. Comfort food.
Photos available at: http://marklitraveljournal.blogspot.com/
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