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Published: June 13th 2009
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Wellington - June 5-9
A weekend in Wellington! Gregg had booked a conference on "Lean in Healthcare and Improving Patient Flow" and the boys and I thought it would be a good opportunity to tag along. Sydney went to Wellington the weekend before with her drama club to compete at the Sheilagh Wynn Shakespeare Festival. Thirteen girls from Craighead got to spend 3 nights performing, taking workshops and exploring the city.
We left Timaru for Christchurch on Friday afternoon and got to see "Stomp" Friday night. Syd had seen it in Wellington the weekend before and had raved about it. It was one of the few Broadway (What do you call these shows when they are not on Broadway or the West End?) shows that I had not seen. A perfect show to take the boys to!
We flew to Wellington way too early on Saturday at 6:45am, but we had to leave the hotel at 5:30am. It was a smooth flight, luckily, as we heard they can be terrible into Wellington, the windy city. Wellington is often referred to at the San Francisco of New Zealand. We took a cab to our downtown hotel, The Duxton, and
were able to check into our room and nap before heading out. We didn't want to stay inside too long as it was a gorgeous day! Enroute to the Wellington Cable Car, we did a little shopping for the boys...all three boys...and had to leave our purchases to be collected later! We had a quick breakfast at Mackers (What McDonald's is affectionately referred to here), and headed to the cable car and up to the Botanic Garden. It was such a perfect day. We walked down through the gardens and to the business section of Wellington. Stopped for a coffee in the Rose Garden. Bought some food for our room and picked up our purchases at Hallensteins and headed back to the hotel for another nap. I had been feeling really crummy - cold, flu like symptoms. Took more cold medicine and we headed out again to the harbor area for ice cream, brrr, and our first of 3 visits to Te Papa Museum. On this day we enjoyed the 2nd floor of the museum - the earthquake house, the colossel squid, 2 indoor rides and lots of interactive exhibts. For dinner we were so tired that we grabbed take
outs at the movie mall food court. In our hotel room we played a game of Monopoly and watched some television.
Sunday morning was much better. We all felt well rested and ready to do more exploring. We didn't get going until 10am and our first stop was the I-site Visitors Center. We bought "Day Tripper" bus passes and headed to Miramar to the Weta Cave. This is a museum of all Peter Jackson and Kiwi films. There were lots of props, a film, and a store with lots to buy. And it was their first birthday so we walked away with two Lord of the Rings statues and a few books for a "discount". Had lunch at a local cafe and went back to our hotel. This was a quick stop to drop off purchases and then we were off by bus again to the Karori Nature Preserve and Bird Sanctuary. We went for a 2 hour walk in the mist and cold. It was very cool to see such a large area within Wellington coordined off for wildlife protection. After a cold two hours we went back to Te Papa to see the 4th floor and watched
Me and the boys
Look at those creepy trees! a New Zealand history film. Tonight for dinner we went to an Indian Baltanese restaurant of Gregg's choice. It was excellent.
Monday morning... up early again as this was day 1 of Gregg's conference. The boys and I were booked on a Wellington Rover tour at 9am. As it turned out, we were the only tourists and got a private tour. First stop was Mt Victoria with a panoramic view of Wellington and the coast. Around Mt Victoria are many "Lord of the Rings" filming sites. The boys had fun trying to remember which forests were in which movie scenes. Avery was thrilled to find out the filming of "The Hobbit" will begin within the year. He even went so far as to say that if he were choosen as an "extra" in the film, he would want to stay in New Zealand! I am looking into that possiblity! At our next stop we were dropped off at the Wellington Zoo for 2 hours and we were nearly the only ones there as well. It's not a bad zoo for a city zoo in New Zealand! They had all the requisite animals and lots of monkeys! Back on the
tour we drove around all the small coastal communites and watched the wicked waves and the surfers. Brrr!
We concluded our tour around 3pm and made a quick stop into one more EB Games in search of a "pre-owned" PSP for Avery, who has been saving his money since last year. Much to his joy and my surprise...we found one! This made his trip awesome! While the PSP was charging in the hotel room, we went back to Te Papa for one final visit and to make sure we had seen it all!
For dinner, Gregg invited a colleague, Vicki Low, over to The Duxton for dinner. The three of us dined together while the boys enjoyed room service, their PSPs and Skye TV.
Wellington is a lovely city. We were fortunate that we didn't have to experience the nasty windy weather that it is often famous for producing! Early morning flight back to Timaru...
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soren jespersen
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Golam........Scary
that golam thing is like evil, it looks like it will eat Avery's SOUL!! haha