Back to Taupo - Wellington Nov 15-Nov 17

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Not much to say about my trip back to Taupo. I basically went back there to catch the bus to Wellington. I did go to a pizzeria there called “Hell”. The pizza is ok, but the theme, just like the name, is “Hell”. All menu items were one of the deadly sins and other “hellish” terms. The headboards to the cash registers were tombstones. Quite an interesting concept. The next day, I went back on the stray bus and ventured to National Park. We couldn’t do the tongariro crossing because of the weather, so we just made a couple of other stops instead. We stopped at a small town known for Gumboot throwing, and thus we held our own competition. The guy and girl who could throw their gumboot the furthest each won a Tui Beer. I didn’t get that far. Once at the lodge, I learned a new card game called “Shithead”. The Next morning, we drove over to wellington.
I didn’t get much time in Wellington - only half a day, but I’m bound to be back there for a bit longer. So in half a day, I went to Te Papa - New Zealand’s national museum. It’s basically a natural history museum on how New Zealand evolved to what it is today - in regards to everything from geography, ecology, socially, and culturally. It’s supposedly the 2nd largest museum of its kind. It’s def, one of my favorite museums ever - up there with the American Natural History Museum in NY (which is quite possibly the largest). Best part though, Te Papa is Free!
Later that evening, a few of us took a cable car up to the top of the botanical gardens for a great view of the city from above. We didn’t really spend much time in the botanical gardens itself since it was already getting dark, but we spent about a ½ hour at the playground there! Once we were back on the city streets, we went over to an Irish pub for a little bit. The next morning, we had to awake extremely early to catch the ferry to south island.

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