Day 171

Originally Wellington was going to be one and done, staying there, that was. But upon further reflection I decided to give Wellytown, capital of New Zealand, a good shake.

Turns out that was an excellent idea.

After a cereal and toast bfast at the backpackers (free!) and a half hour checking email and Olympic scores (free!) I headed out to Te Papa.

Now it’s really hard to describe the brilliance of Te Papa. It is quite outstanding, and possibly the best museum/gallery/living history site I’ve ever seen (and I worked at an award winning one for four summers, don’t you know). Five floors (you can’t count reception on the bottom!) of absolutely brilliant exhibits.

First stop was the Anne Frank travelling exhibit.

I have actually never read her diary (I know, shame) but the history portrayed behind it was phenomenal. Next stop was a visual history of media and merchandise in the past years of New Zealand, followed by a stroll through a wharenui.

It was absolutely gorgeous. I mean I can’t even begin to imagine what kind of time it took to construct this magnificent complex. When I was inside it was quite dark, and apparently I surprised a young school child. I apologized and she remarked that I wasn’t from the area. I told her that she was correct, that I was from Canada. She was fascinated to hear this and was peppering me with questions! Her teacher later told me that she shouldn’t bug the nice man; I said it was nonsense and I didn’t mind at all.

I know nobody believes me, but I actually do miss teaching (because this day would have been our normal Sears Festival night as it has been for the last five years)..
I decided to take my lunch outside to enjoy by the wharf. On route I found this:

Which lead me to believe that “The Crystal Maze” is in a quite decrepit state of affairs.
Back into the museum in the afternoon. I toured through the earth and fire exhibits, and then hit up “Our Scene”. While I passed on the motion simulators, I did experiment with “The Wall”.

This is quite the technological marvel - you can actually take a wand, which resembles a Wii controller, and then move pictures all over the wall, and even put up your own picture!
The final exhibit that I got to was the giant squid. It was called the colossal squid – and with good reason.

I departed Te Papa after having filled out their comment card to the limit and also having personally thanked the reception. I was very impressed with Te Papa and encourage anyone reading if they’re in Wellington at some point to go and check it out.

Now after an afternoon nap – something that I’m learning to perfect on this tour, because frankly, I can – I headed off to the BATS theatre to try and score some theatre tickets. I got lucky as there was at least one no show so I got to see my first ever fringe production.
It was quite funny – meant to be a parody of “travelling educational shows”. I laughed the whole time and hope to be able to adapt the show for use at work. We’ll see!

Cheers,
Vick