Woke up early, 6:40 instead of 6:45, but still didn’t manage to leave the hotel until 8:45. Didn’t get a chance to use our in-room spa bath. :( Got some brekkie at a pastry/snack shop while walking to Te Papa. Jer a veggie pie and Jess an apple turnover. Did a little sightseeing in some of Wellington’s public spaces. Plentitude of Public Art, much of it not terrible. (Cute pig by the Town Hall, for example. Cool metal fern sculture, too.)
Arrived at Te Papa just before opening time, with just enough time to drop our bags at the coat check before the exhibits opened. Decided that we wanted to spend most of our time at the Maori and animal exhibits, then spent 45 minutes at Awesome Forces, the plate tectonics exhibit. We did spend a decent amount of time at the Maori exhibits — Te Marae (the meetinghouse and storehouse complex) and the temporary exhibit about the customs of the tribes along the Whanganui River were particularly good. (They also created an interesting juxtaposition, as Te Marae was created for the museum, while the Whanganui exhibit talked about tribes attempting to reclaim land, etc.) Te Papa really is an excellent museum, we hadn’t run out of things to see and do by the time we had to leave for the ferry terminal, to catch the ferry to the South Island.
The Wellington ferry terminal was unremarkable, with the exception that we watched the train back into the ferry, and come out with cars attached to it. Got on the ferry boat, had excellent weather for the crossing. Met a lovely couple from California, who were on their honeynoon. Random note: in NZ, you can buy rum and coke in a bottle, pre-mixed.
Arrived in Picton, Jer made a mad dash for the drug store, where he acquired contact lens solution. Hopped on the bus to Nelson, got a nice view of the countryside. Quite a difference from Wellington, mountainous and “wild,” with conifers predominating. Upon closer inspection, many of there forests have been planted, with neat rows of evenly-spaced trees. Saw a nice, many-layered sunset, as well as farms with sheep, horses, deer, grapes, and cows. Also, vast fields of gorse and billboards with today’s fire warning level (generally pretty low). Random note: the road signs have a section to indicate whether the road is open or closed. Soon it got dark, and we slept a bit. Just as well, the road was über-twisty, and Jess got a little queasy. Our bus driver tried to drop us off at our accommodations, Trafalgar Square Backpackers, but was stymied by an impromptu pedestrian area — the square by the cathedral was blocked off.
After checking into our cozy room (with its lovely red and gold jacquard bedding), we set off to find a bite of dinner. As we entered the square, the clothing and hairstyles of the passers-by made it clear that we had stumbled upon the annual World of Wearable Art festival.
Our first restaurant choice, the Victorian Rose, being busy and smoky, we headed around the corner to Lambretta’s, which was decorated in scooters — paintings, posters and even the real thing. Dinner was fine, though nothing special. Jer had blue cheese and broccoli soup, as well as the Lambretta Classic pizza. Jess had pasta carbonara. The hot chocolate was probably the best part. Also, we found where they had been hiding the attractive white Kiwis — both of them were waitresses. (Attractive Kiwis of Maori, Indian, and Chinese descent are nothing unusual.)
Upon exiting the restaurant, we found ourselves in front of the concert in the square, where two Kiwis in gold lamé were belting out oldies like “Pretty Woman”, “I Saw Her Standing There”, “YMCA” and “Hot Hot Hot”. The crowd was lovin’ it — literally dancing in the street (yes, us too)! While the singers were pretty good, and very sassy, whenever they spoke they lapsed into Kiwi accents, and their pronunciation of “olé” and “arriba” made us laugh. It was fun!
After the concert finished at 10:00, we headed back to our room, to bed.