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Published: July 27th 2009
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This time I was in Wellington for good. And by good I mean 3 days. Rob had now finished his gruelling exams (all 1 of them) so was free to show me a bit of the city. First stop was New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa. It's a monstrous place, and to be honest, there are large swathes of it which I found wholly uninteresting. However, there are some excellent sections, such as the one on natural disasters, including a room you can step in and experience an earthquake. I also liked the colossal squid they had on display, which is apparently bigger than a giant squid. Exiting the museum, we naturally neglected the cafe, which would surely have been overpriced. However, if we had seen fit to go in, I would have bumped into another character from my Latin American travels. In the event, I would only have to wait until tomorrow to see them (but for now I'll keep you guessing on who they were. Ooh the suspense, who could it be. I can imagine you all scouring my blogs for likely suspects as I type).
Next, Rob drove me up to the top of Mt Victoria, for
a quick panoramic view of the city (I do this rather often you might have gathered) before we left the sights to do a bit of 4WDing on a track along the beach near the city. This was all good fun, until we got stuck in some gravel, and had to dig for about half an hour to get the car free. To be honest, Rob did most of the digging, Im useless at that sort of thing. But I scraped away manfully underneath the car anyway.
A new day dawned, and Rob decided he needed to go do some work in uni leaving me to walk, yes walk into the city. I had a meeting planned with the mysterious couple later on (another clue there, they are a couple), but until then I saw some more of the sights of Wellington, including the cricket stadium, and the parliament building, known around here as the Beehive. To me, it looked more like a giant Dalek. I think the citizens of Welly had better take care!
After my sightseeing, I did something I'm really not proud of. Infact, I'd really appreciate it if my parents didn't read the next
sentence, as I don't want their image of their son to be spoiled. I went to McDonalds. Look, I was hungry, and it was nearby. I'm sorry.
Suitably demeaned, but less hungry, I made my way to Te Papa to meet up with none other than Mark and Emma, with whom I'd spent happy times at Laguna de Apoyo, Nicaragua. Did you guess? Anyway, they're now working in Wellington, and as it happens, Mark was just finishing his shift at the cafe when I arrived, so we got a cup of tea and a muffin, lovely jubbly. The evening was spent catching up with them, undoubted highlight being a rather good curry which we went out for. Or perhaps it was the PG Tips. Hmm. Ok then, the curry might not have been the undoubted highlight, but it was the highlight. It's strange though, as although Mark and Emma (and Rob too) are people I've met on this trip, seeing them here was like seeing old friends. Well, I guess I've known them nearly a year now.
Frivolities over, the next day it was time to set sail for New Zealand's other island, reputedly the better island. I
decided to find out for myself.
Stewart
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