New Zealand Isn't Always Cold

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Our flight to Wellington got in super late so we got a taxi to Andy's house and then crashed as soon as he showed us our mattresses set up in his living room. He let us know he had work in the morning so we could meet him in town once he was done. Nodded our heads tiredly and then ZZZZZZZZZZZZ. So much ZZZZ that we woke up about the time we were supposed to meet Andy. No problem though because he was still in the house. Now everyone, including Andy I must say, told us to expect rain. Rain and cold is constant in New Zealand they told us. I heeded this advice and doned a scarf, jeans, and cardigan with a tank underneath. This would prove to be a poor decision once the sun reared its head, but more on that soon enough. Andy strode with us down Cuba St which is dotted with cute shops and pubs. There is even a bucket fountain of sorts with water running down a ladder of red "sugar scoops". Apparently Elijah Wood drunkenly tried to climb this in his Lord of The Rings days. After the obligatory "let's go look at parliment because we need to act like these things are important" Andy took us for a walk along the waterfront. I say walk but what I mean is death march. "Let's walk around this corner," he'd say, yet the corner would never end. My feet were sore, Hannah and I were thirsty, and the scarf that had looked so cool before was now an offensive turban on my head. We finally convinced him to end the madness and take us to a chocolate shop called Shcoc. Divine. There was limi and chili chocolate, pink peppercorn, sea salt, and kiwi chocolate. A bit odd, but good.

Andy had a job interview to go to so Brennan, Hannah, and I went to the Te Papa museum which is FREE. I love a free museum. Actually I love free anything. I'm a free addict. Not only was Te Papa free, but it was also completely interesting and informative. We saw a massive squid in a tank that is the largest ever found and captured, learned loads about the Maori, the native people of NZ, and found an interesting exhibit on trying to collect semen samples from a native bird. Apparently the bird would try to mate with scientists heads so they made a "semen collection hat" to try and capture some of the gold. Sadly the bird was no longer interested once the hat was worn. These scientists also tried to make a replica of the female which zoomed around on wheels, yet the male birds had no interest in her. Apparently she was very unattractive. I felt like going to museum was like taking a intensive class on NZ as I read about volcanic activity, immigration to NZ, and went into an earthquake room. We also got to see umbrellas with flowers projected on them which respond to heat. We sat and watched that for a good while. I'm suprised the museum isn't full of potheads, the place is perfect for them. There is even a scultpure garden where nothing made sense, but we pretended to find meaning in the red blocks and silver pipes.

After a beer at Malthouse, which had bosenberry and ginger beer!, we met up with our other NZ friend Ellie to get food for a BBQ. That evening we sat outside on the grass as the sun went down and ate lamb and salad. After a wee bit of vodka we found ourselves at a bar on Cuba St that felt very much like it would be in Cuba and at that point we decided it was time to go.

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