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Published: June 13th 2011
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We weren't sure if we could cover everything that we wanted to do in Wellington in just one day, but we were going to give it a go. Fortunately, our apartment afforded us with the opportunity to walk to see it all, so we started by walking toward the water and the Parliament Buildings. Wellington is the nation's capital for those keeping score at home.
Our next stop was a couple of blocks away at Old Saint Paul's Church. This was an Anglican church and the national church from 1866-1964. It was beautiful inside, constructed entirely of native timber. Surprisingly there were flags of the US and the US Corp hanging inside. Apparently this side of town was used by the US as a layover point and base during World War II. The church was adopted by the troops. The US presence was a welcome one as New Zealand was highly concerned about a Japanese invasion. Memorial Day services are still held annually.
From the church, we started out to the cable car. The hills in Wellington are quite steep. Our apartment has its main entrance on Floor 3 on one side but you can exit on Floor 1.
Both exits are street level. The cable car took us on a dramatic rise offering fine views of the harbor and city below. The top of the ride let left us in a huge park. We set off through a forest walk with native trees and foliage. We even managed to see a parrot.
There was an exciting children's play area with a long zip line, nice slides and a funky octopus-looking ride with tire seats on it. The equipment was cool enough for Geddy & Ivy to enjoy as well. We played there for a bit before making our way back to the cable car.
The bottom side of the cable car let out on what seemed to be the main drag through downtown. We meandered through the city, grabbed a bite and headed to walk along the waterfront to the national museum. Like our national museums, this one did not have an admission fee. The building seemed very new and had an extremely nice design. There was far too much to see and do in one afternoon.
We first headed back to see the Colossal Squid. This had been caught by fisherman near Antarctica a
couple of years back. They froze it and donated it to the museum. The sea monster measured about 15 feet long with tentacles that featured not only suction cups but rotating sharp hooks. They eye, which could not be preserved was about the size of a soccer ball. Theo was mesmerized by it and watched the short documentary on the catch of it a couple of times.
Next to the squid exhibit was an interactive room that had display with a life-sized heart of a blue whale. This was set up for kids to be able to crawl through. It was about the size of a VW Bug. Geddy and Ivy were walking to different computer stations doing some kind of interactive game. We next went to an earthquake exhibit that had a house that shook like it was in a quake. This area had quite a bit of information and exhibits which were timely to see as Christchurch had been hit again today by a couple of serious aftershocks. We ended up getting split up after this area. The girls went out to an outdoor bush walk and the rest of us went to a volcano display.
Shortly after, we went to a cool computer exhibit where there were terminals to take pictures of videos. These could then be sent over to a huge wall that was a large video screen. You could then use wands to manipulate the images. We were the only ones in this area, so soon the 10 by 50 foot wall was covered with our images and video snippets. After all of this, we hadn't left the second floor of the 6 floor building!
We started looking around for the girls and focused our efforts on the 4th floor which had an amazing Maori exhibit as well as half of the floor dedicated to British influences on New Zealand. In the corner of this side there was another interactive children's area where Geddy played with a creepy animated baby in a cage and Theo played with a video image manipulation program on a computer.
We did another round looking for the girls before heading back to the room on the second floor with the video screen. They weren't there, but they had been there as their pictures were on the wall. Since the museum closed in less than 20 minutes,
we ended up meeting at the exit and walking back through town exhausted from a long day in Wellington.
I can't believe we are leaving the North Island tomorrow. Our trip is one-third of the way over.
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Diane Weidman
non-member comment
Awesome!
Your trip sounds fantastic! Thank-you so much for sharing! Have a great time! Diane