February 3
Today we awaken and get ready to head into Wellington for
the day to see the capital city. We are
riding the train into town to avoid having to navigate the city and find
parking, especially since they are hosting an extra 40,000 people for the rugby
tournament. We are told that it should
be an exciting day to be in Wellington with so many people gathered around the
waterfront harbor “celebrating” the rugby tournament. We do some schooling on the train ride and
upon arrival in Wellington, we immediately see what they have been talking
about. Almost everyone in the city is
dressed in costumes of every sort. They
travel in groups of matching outfits and it is a very festive environment. They boys, of course, want to go see the rugby
games, but we learn that not as many people actually attend the games as there
are celebrating in the streets. They are
giving away all sorts of free stuff from energy drinks to sunglasses and
wristbands…..the kids cannot get enough…literally! We seek out the nearby backpackers hostel
because they have lockers where we can lock up our backpacks while we see the
town. After we store away our stuff, we head off along the waterfront where all
the action is in full swing. The kids
take in the scene with great interest.
There are large screen TV’s posted around town that are showing the game
to those in the streets. The revelers are
quite interesting to watch….all good natured fun! We end up on the wharf by the Te Papa, the
Museum of New Zealand. We venture inside
and find some really engaging exhibits on geology, how earthquakes and
volcanoes occur and more information on the natural world around us. We stop by the “Earthquake House” that shows
a short video and then starts shaking to show what it is like to be in an
actual earthquake. We continue along and
arrive at the marine biology part that houses the world’s only colossal squid. We watch the video of how they caught it and
then we see the actual squid. It is only
a baby, but is has eyes as large as soccer balls and little hooks that rotate
on its tentacles. It eats with a beak
and is about 15’ in length.
Amazing. This is the only
captured example of the colossal squid.
We watch a short 3D movie on how it survives in the wild, at depths of
several miles down in total darkness. We
proceed on to other exhibits before returning to the gaiety of the waterfront
atmosphere in search of lunch – a 4:30 lunch – possibly, early dinner. We come upon a nice little alleyway that
could easily be in Zurich or Paris and find a number of cute food vendors. We opt for a noodle house where they mix
salad, BBQ pork with hot noodles and sauce.
A one bowl meal that is quite satisfying and delicious. After our meal, we walk around and make our way
back to the station for the return trip to Masterton. We all chill out on the train ride home,
arriving at 7:30. We get back to the hotel
and settle in for an early evening and even earlier morning….tomorrow we have
to get up by 6:00am in order to drive into Wellington and pick up our ferry to
the south island.
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