Day 98

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Last full day on the South Island. Starting to feel a bit fed up that we are leaving, and people keep coming up with lists of places we’ve not visited and saying about how we can’t possibly not go there, and so it’s a clear indication that we’ve missed so much off our trip. I also feel that we’ve sort of rushed the last bit of the trip a bit, but we’re heading back to Wellington tomorrow night and that’ll be good, I’ve spent a total of 2 nights actually in Wellington, so to have a few days staying close by in the Hutt will be really good, looking forward to the sights and sounds there too, as well as catching up with all our new friends from Wanaka who are based in Wellington. Anyway, today was all about trying to finish up the rest of the bits we’d not managed to do yesterday so after breakfast we headed into town, parked up on the streets where we’d parked last night for the concert, and walked to the tram stop and jumped on. Absolutely baking hot day today, temperature of around 37 degrees at the height of the day, and even the wind was hot, it was stifling and I duly sweated like a trooper for most of the day! First stop was the Cathedral, which was open to the public and, most unusually got a church, you were allowed to photograph, so we spent some time in there but there was some sort of political talk going on so we didn’t hang around as long as we may have done otherwise. After that we went to the Cathedral café for a bite more to eat as Helen was feeling peckish, scrambled egg on toast did the trick. We took the tram to the Art Gallery and finished off the remaining rooms we’d not seen before, and, as luck would have it, as we were finished off the last room, they were announcing a free guided tour of some of the works would be taking place shortly, so we got taken around by a very animated guide who was explaining all the works, how the works linked together, a bit about the artists and it was really good to get that sort of insight into things. From the gallery we jumped on the tram again and headed to the museum. This was fascinating, and by far and away the most interesting exhibit was by the NZ armed forces artist, and official post they have, and it was a display of his artwork, inspired by spending time training and working with the army. Absolutely fascinating, and his work was vivid, bold and really poigniant. Not big into army things but this was far and away the best room in the place. From there, we went just around the corner to the Antartic photography exhibition. This was largely around Scotts failed south pole trip, and to see some of the photos taken by the men who only months later would die just 11 miles from safety was really quite moving. Absolutely breathtaking photos of the ice as well, and a lot of photos around Shackleton’s failed trip too. A really interesting hour and a bit we got before the museum closed, and well worth the entrance fee for this particular area. From there, we wandered to the arts area and had dinner, before doing one complete circuit of the tram and then heading back to our car and picking up and ice lolly to try and stave off the heat! Then it was back to the camp site, to do some washing up and clothes washing, as well as a little blogging, and then it was time to enjoy a glass of red wine and some cheese and crackers, as purchased at the arts and craft fare yesterday. Yummy!!

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