Down Time in Wellington

In between reaching Wellington and a prearranged day to meet up with a friend for some more hiking around the country, Emily and I have had five days to rest and explore. We thought about going out and seeing things around either island, but decided that there was plenty to do in Wellington and we could just rest up.

The big museum here is free. It’s 5 stories of interesting exhibits on their history, wildlife, geology, and more. They also had a special exhibit called “The Scale of War”. I thought this was incredible. They had large scale models of battle scenes where the men and women were 15 feet tall. Each incredibly life like person had its own room with narration and sound effects. Rooms in between the sculptures had projection technology on 3d relief maps to show the way the war fronts developed night and day. Many little snippets of information were on the walls, and displays and such were plentiful. I was really moved by the exhibit and saw many, many people walk out of it also visibly emotional. One aspect that was interesting was that the exhibit highlighted their attack in Turkey and how they ultimately failed. In the US, I would have expected to see an exhibit about how we won the day, not decided we had had enough and retreated. Curious.

We also went to the zoo where we had a fun ostrich experience and saw the lions, tigers, and bears. And we went to the planetarium to see an overview of the southern sky and see a show about how we are made of stardust that was much better than I had expected. And we took the cable car up the hill, and ate many delicious things. And we saw the movie “Moana” which features Polynesian culture, so that was fun. We both liked the movie quite a bit. Also, I have the song “So Shiny!” stuck in my head now.

We also said goodbye to friends we have hiked with for many weeks now. One is headed to the South Island and one is headed back north to hike a couple of areas he missed. It was a bittersweet experience to wish them well as we parted ways. We are happy that we are moving on to other things, but sorry to miss the shared experiences with them.

Finally, we also planned a couple more New Zealand adventures. We will be heading down to Fiordland for a three day kayaking trip around Doubtful Sound, and then a couple more days of day hikes in the area too. Then we head back to the north island to see a couple things there, including maybe a trip to Hobbiton.

And now our friend will be here tonight and suddenly it’s time to walk again. The plan is to ferry over to the South Island to walk the Queen Charlotte Track for a few days. This is actually the first part of the Te Araroa trail on the South Island, so that will be fun.