Wellington and the North Island in the Rain (Monday, February 23)

We traveled to Wellington overnight, our first stop on the North Island. We didn't schedule any excursions for today, but Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand, so we anticipate that there won't be an issue with finding things to do.  As always, we started with breakfast in the Terrace Cafe.  Even though there are lots of choices, we have settled into a fairly predictable pattern, with Alan, not surprisingly, opting every day for fresh, warm sticky buns, with lots of fresh fruit and tea.

It was looking kind of rainy, so we picked up the appropriate wet weather wear to take along.  Alan is suffering from some allergy symptoms, which isn't really a surprise, since it is summer here, and those pollen things have been floating around.  He's pushing through, but seems to have a constantly running nose, with some sneezing and coughing.

We took a shuttle from the ship to a central spot in downtown Wellington.  From there, we knew we were heading to the Te Papa museum, so Alan had a sense of the direction to start walking and Joyce followed along.  It was kind of misting, but it was a pleasant 10 minute walk.  We were pretty early, and it looked like we would probably arrive at the museum about opening time, so we took a few pictures along the way, once we had verified that we really were heading in the right direction.

Te Papa's official name is Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, which literally means 'container of treasures'. This is New Zealand's national museum, located on the waterfront, full of natural, historical, and cultural information about New Zealand.

The map we were given says "The museum is built on a unique bicultural partnership, which recognises and celebrates Māori as tangata whenua--the original people of this land."  The building was opened in 1998 and is open, modern, and engaging.

There are five (or six, according to the map, but really 5) levels to the museum.  We started with the 'Natural Environment' exhibit, which showed examples (stuffed mostly) of the wildlife in New Zealand, including the introduced, four-legged species and the trouble they cause.  There was even a model moa, which became extinct probably within 100 years of the first human arrival in the 1300's.  The large (about 12 foot tall), flightless birds were kings in their own world, but were easy prey for the humans looking for a meal.  There were some records of sightings as recently as 150 years ago, but those are undocumented.  We also got to see what a kiwi looks like, which won't likely happen in real life since they are shy and nocturnal.

New Zealand is a product of two continental plates overlapping, and therefore volcanoes and earthquakes are a part of everyday life here.  We looked at an exhibit about the internal workings of the earth and how volcanoes erupt, as well as stood in a small house that was experiencing an earthquake (simulated, thankfully).

We walked through a temporary exhibit celebrating 75 years of Air New Zealand, including some seating that didn't look anything like what we experienced.  There were also several exhibits of more contemporary life in New Zealand, that reinforced that we are all products of western society, even with the strong appreciation of Māori influence here.

We spent a large chunk of time in the 'Social History' section on Māori and Pacific Island communities.  There were displays showing 'clothing' and costumes, needlework, carving, and early history.  There were many tribes, so warfare was a significant component of the history as each group tried to establish territory and dominance.

We even got to hear the haka, the traditional ancestral war cry, which is designed to be loud and intimidating.  It is.  Today, it is used in lots of occasions--as a greeting, before New Zealand sporting matches, and for visitors.  The chant definitely contains loud shouting, arm movements, thigh slapping, stomping, bulging eyes and wagging tongues.  Here's an example of the New Zealand All Black rugby team performing a Haka:   The Haka (Ka mate, ka mate!!)

Of course, Pete got to get out of the backpack when he heard the challenge, and was interested in one of the tribal meeting house reconstructions on display.

There was a 'bush walk' display, which we walked through fairly quickly because now it was really beginning to rain.  We regrouped in the cafeteria area with the free WiFi and made a plan to get back to the center of town to the starting point of the Wellington Cable Car, while waiting out the heaviest rain.

The rain let up a bit, and we ventured out, stopping at a little 'pop-up' jewelry store along the way and found some nice deals on decent jewelry.  Looking back, we should probably have done a little more shopping there.

We got back to the main shopping district, but it wasn't exactly what Alan was expecting to find.  But sure enough, the ticket office and the lower entrance to the Cable Car was nestled in among the store fronts.  Like we've seen throughout New Zealand, the land goes very sharply up from the waterfront, so the Cable Car is a reasonable way to head up to some of the other attractions in Wellington.

The trip wasn't long, with just a couple of stops along the way.  At the top, we were in the Wellington Botanical Garden.  It was still raining decently hard, so we looked around the shop that was there, and did just about anything else we could inside.  The rain did let up a bit, but it still wasn't the pleasant walk through a garden that we were hoping for.  We did get far enough to find a sundial and a couple of nice views of the city and harbor below, but finally gave up and came back down the incline on the Cable Car.

We looked through some of the stores after we left the cable car, but it was relatively high end stuff, and we really weren't interested.  So, we caught the next shuttle back to the pier and got back on board.  Of course, about the time we got back to the boat, the rain pretty much stopped, but taking another 20 minutes or so just to get back to an area that didn't interest us that much wasn't worth the hassle.  Earlier we had talked about going to the Wellington Zoo and an interesting sounding in-city nature preserve, but there definitely wasn't time to do that now.  Maybe if we had chosen that first and the museum second, it all might have worked around the rain.  We were pretty happy with our choice, though.

The ship is docked across from the Wellington Stadium, and the signs there reminded us that the

2015 Cricket World Cup was underway.  Several of the guides in both Australia and New Zealand talked to us about the major matches that were coming up.  The dock is also surrounded by acres and acres of cut logs, also reminding us that lumber is a major trade item for New Zealand.

Since we  were back a little early, we took the opportunity to use one of the two hot tubs by the swimming pool on the 12th deck.  I suppose the weather scared people off, but it was nice to have the area pretty much to ourselves.

We rested and blogged/pictured for a while before having dinner in Grand Dining Room again.

The evening's entertainment was an Australian singer, Karen Beckett.  She had a nice voice and sang a number of styles.  She was a little full of herself in the talking she did in between songs, which got a little old.  She ended her set by imitating several different female singers and did a pretty convincing job.  Alan liked her more than Joyce did.  Though we had a damp day, it was still a pretty good one.