Wellington

Arriving late into Wellington I went for a quick wander around the shopping streets unusually lined with individual non-chain shops, the cultural centre and the marina. The bridge from the cultural centre to the marina was covered with what seemed like a random assortment of Maouri artefacts on poles and in piles!

The marina itself was huge and full of office-types heading out for their end-of-the-week celebrations. In fact considering how dressed-up everyone was in Wellington compared to what us traveller-types have in our wardrobes on our backs, we were a little concerned whether we were going to be able to go anywhere other than the Base backpacker´s bar.

And then it happened - the first spot of rain in Wellington and then a torrential downpour! I stayed out in it a bit longer than probably I should as at the moment it started hammering down I had been watching the prelude to the showing of Grease at a free screening in the park. It consisted of 30+ 30-somethings getting on down to the moves from the Greese medlay among others infront of a crowd of cheering families...probably the embarrassed children of the very adults making a hilarious spectacle of themselves!

That night it was Frenchie´s last night...so out we went to celebrate in style with four people we met in the Base bar, of which I can remember Dave´s name only, though one was from New York, another made jewellery and the other was just plain wasted! Jana, Velerie, Ross & Vicky from the Kiwi bus came to join us after their film for a night full of checking out just how well Frenchie´s dancing skills fitted into the amazing number of late-night bars and clubs which remarkably had no cover charge...a genious idea whereby you can just walk straight back out if its crap! It turns out the bars here really don´t close, at least not before I need to go to bed cos I cannot possibly dance anymore as my legs are about to give way!

Next morning I´d said to Lucy I´d be up at 9.30am to go check out the city. Amazingly that is the precise moment I manage to crash into the kitchen having just had one heck of a rushed shower. First stop was intended to be Old St Pauls - an old entirely wooden church which, as it turns out, is an extremely popular venue for marriages. Lucy had missed going in yesterday for exactly that reason, and as we got there this time it was the same thing all over again...grrr!

So off to get a tour around the Parliamentary buildings. Frustratingly we weren´t allowed to take photos of the Art Deco and faux Corintium interiors of these beautiful buildings, but the tour was really interesting and even included a good look at the system they´d used to stabilise the old buildings for earthquakes. We also found out that their House of Lords had voted itself out of existence following a lengthy campaign by the Commons to vote-in people who really didn´t wanted nothing more than to be rid of the Lords!

When we finally made it into Old St Pauls, between two wedding services, we found ourselves conveniently supplied with food and a string quartet! In fairness the whole church was beautifully carved and a lot more interesting than "just a church built from wood" which I´d expected. The new cathedral wasn´t half as interesting though, probably built in the seventies and in tight competition with Prinknash Abbey over which is the least asthetically pleasing.

After a lunch of enchiladas in another very reasonably-priced food court (why don´t we have these in England?) it was time for part two of my day - the Te Papa Museum in Wellington. Absolutely enormous and totally fascinating it showed just about every aspect of New Zealand history and life. I still haven´t seen a Kiwi bird alive, but I saw plenty of stuffed specimens here. The huge Pigmy Blue Whale skeleton hanging above them was massive and totally awesome.

One particularly worrying display was of some ginormous bug which weighs about the same as three mice...it´d take a hefty tennis racket to swat that!

The top floor was by far the most interesting with displays of all aspects of Mauri life. The houses and places of worship were paintstakingly carved and painted and really impressive. One really cool thing to see was the reconstruction of the catermaran sailing boats they originally used to sail between the islands of Polynesia which essentially consisted of two canoes strapped to some boards and a sail. They must have been total nutters to sail something so small across the ocean.

My final stop of the day was the botanical gardens at the top of the mountain, reached by way of a "cable-car". Having managed two botanical gardens on this trip - the other being in Sydney - I´m quite sure this is the only one I´ve been to which is partially on top of an old volcano cone...pretty cool! As well as being used for star gazing, the cone on the top of the volcano had a sundial installed which would tell you the correct time if you stood on the correct day with your back to the sun. All-told glancing at your watch is a quicker process, but definitely not as enjoyable.

Last call in the botanical gardens was at the Rose Garden - Mum and Gran will be particularly impressed! Full of over 100 different types of roses it smelt rather good and was definitely on the rather-large side. After that day and only 3 hours' sleep it was back for a late dinner and an early night.