Time to get a little bit of culture

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Beehive Parliament
Went on a free tour here
Very interesting.

I woke up with the thought of..."it' free bagel Monday!" It’s always a nice way to start the day knowing a free and yummy breakfast is waiting for you. I took my time having breakfast, I called my mom for Mother's day and also gave Anita a call. By the time I packed my bag and packed a lunch/snack for the road I was finally "good to go" at about 11. Talk about slow moving! Well, I guess it didn't help I bumped into Michelle and Sinead in the dining room. They moved over from the Base Hostel since there were bed bugs found in some of the beds. Yucks!

Since the weather was good - sunny and only a little bit windy - I set out for a walk to the Beehive aka the Parliament Buildings with Sarah. Since we were walking by the Wellington City and Sea Museum we thought we'd drop by there as well since it was free admission. Unfortunately the museum was not open for visitors (well the gift shop was) since they were in the middle of changing the displays. Oh well.

So we continued onward to Parliament. I've been on tour of the Buildings before but thought I'd go again to see how different it'd be the second time round. Plus it was a nice walk. The Vietnamese Prime Minister (or is it President?) was visiting Helen Clark (NZ's Prime Minister for those of you who do not know.) so our tour was diverted several times. We didn't bump into them but it was lunch time and through the frosted glass we could see them settling in for some lunch.

Sarah had to take off for work so I continued on my own exploring. I walked around the Parliament grounds for a bit before heading towards Lambton Quay for a bit of window shopping. I passed by the Cable Car and hopped on to take a ride up to the Botanical Gardens. I wandered around for about an hour but it wasn't very colourful...but it was all green. I stopped off at the Cable Car Museum (since it was free). It's really small. Basically just a couple of cable cars and a gift shop.

I rode back down the hill and continued my window shopping in Lambton Quay and then continued to the Cuba Street area where there were more funky shops. Amazingly I didn't spend too much money. I guess because there weren't too many sales and clothes are pretty pricey here. I bumped into Tamsen and Sarah in one of the shops and they told me all about the bedbugs that were at the Base Hostel..guess who is now staying at the YHA?

I made a short stop to New World to pick up some groceries before heading back to the hostel where Sarah, Charlotte and Rosey were talking about their days adventures. I eventually made my way downstairs for some dinner and saw Alexandra in the dining area and sat down with her. Always nice to see a familiar face especially since I still don't like to eat by myself. Although I must admit it is not as bad as I used to think...guess you get used to it cuz one has to eat!

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