The Windy City

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Sorry for the long silence! It's due to a cross between the excitement of my birthday weekend and the lack of computer access...

Last I left off, if I remember correctly, we were having a ball with our South African brothers (who we are now proper facebook friends with and will be visiting in the future!). Well, we parted ways in Wellington, and Tay and I didn't quite know what to do with ourselves. So we decided to check out the Te Papa museum, which everyone we talked to had been raving about. This FREE museum was packed with art, history, culture, science, and basically everything New Zealand. I was thrilled to learn that they had the world's ONLY displayed colossal squid! We had fun wandering through the exhibits and experiencing things such as an earthquake simulation and the interactive Haka Ka Mate lesson (google it).

Besides 2 days at the museum, we didn't get up to much during the week so as to save up our energy for the amazing weekend ahead...

Friday: wake up at 7 AM, jump in the car with an Indonesian chef named Ricky (met through couch surfing), and go on an offroading adventure to Red Rocks. He went spearfishing with his friend Mark while we walked around taking pictures of sea lions and collecting shells. Ricky caught one fish and went back in, after he offered, to bring us two live paua (abalone)! He invited us to come have lunch at his place and of course we said yes. He cooked us a delicious feast and taught me how to de-shell and clean paua meat so that I could take the second one for later. Stomachs stuffed, Ricky brought us back to our current couch surfing house and we napped before getting ready....for the game!! Decked out in our newly purchased red, white, and blue garb (thank you dollar store), we made our way into the city to pick up our tickets and shout "USA!" like maniacs at any random person also dressed accordingly. The Australia vs. US game was insane- there were more US supporters than Australian as the kiwis had taken it upon themselves to help boo their biggest rival. While we were brutally murdered on the field, final score 60-5, we still had an excellent time cheering and causing a general raucus. The remainder of the night was spent celebrating and dancing- mostly because it was now my birthday and not because we just got our butts kicked.

Saturday- recovery. We went out to breakfast at a cute little bagel shop and then headed to the zoo! I got to see my first live kiwi, and have determined they are by far the most awkward, helpless birds on the planet. When the wind kicked up in the afternoon we headed home to relax. I accepted the challenge that is cooking paua meat- its like cutting through rubber, but it fries up so nicely! I made us a wonderful little veggie and paua stirfry while we watched the All Blacks game on TV. Then it was time to go out for night 2 of birthday madness, starting at a bar called Alice. Alice, as the name would suggest, is themed after Alice in Wonderland, with drinks served in teapots and mirrors lining the walls of the cramped, oddly decorated little space. After a rather expensive teapot, we moved on to a club for some dancing and cheaper drinks.

Sunday- Sleep. Watch TV. Eat rice. And then board an overnight bus for the 11-hour ride back to Auckland, that would eventually become 13 hours because we broke down 30 minutes into the trip.

As you can see, we had an excellent time in Wellington!

Less than 1 week left in NZ before we head to Oz- ahh!

PS- I've added a few pictures to older blogs, for those of you without facebook 😊

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Comments

[Virginia Kelly]

Thank you for the pictures on the older posts! OMG! I could never do the Zorb thing! You two are crazy and I love you for it. Awesome jumping picture! Love to you both from more than half way round the world! Momma