My 2014 Adventure: Travels to Singapore, Australia & New Zealand: Wellington (Part I)

After a 5.5 hour bus ride Mariel and I arrived in Wellington yesterday. It feels weird to be in a bustling city again, after seeing so much nature these past couple of weeks. We walked the 25 minutes with our heavy packs to the Cambridge Hotel & Backpackers, which is by far the nicest hostel we have stayed in yet. The bathrooms are a big part of that because there are about 10 clean showers to use in individual stalls…you know you’ve been traveling for a while when the prospect of a clean bathroom is exciting to you! That afternoon we took the Wellington Cable Car up the hill to see the Botanic Gardens. We went through the paths on the “bush walk” (again, a little staged when you’ve actually been tramping through the bush) and found some of the lamps that are part of the nightly light exhibition going on right now.

Our first full day in Wellington we spent hours going through all of the exhibits in the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, or Te Papa as most people call it. Te Papa is the national museum of New Zealand. I learned that sometimes the country is called “Aotearoa,” and in the Maori language it translates to “land of the long white cloud.” Te Papa has many facets of New Zealand’s history including the natural world (skeletons of whales, birds, and a colossal squid), Maori culture, New Zealand history dating back from when humans first stepped onto land through the 20^th Century, historical and contemporary art…the list is endless. One of my most vivid memories of the exhibits is of WOW, which stands for World of Wearable Art. It’s an annual competition where artists put forward entries using any materials imaginable. Some of the “clothing” we saw today were made from wool, tin, pine needles, and wood. They also showed projections of the WOW show on the walls in between exhibit cases; sometimes the pieces were shown in runway-type shows and others part of dance pieces. I think it would be an amazing experience to see the show live so I’m going to keep my eye out for it! This afternoon we walked along Lambton Quay and saw the Parliament Building or “Beehive,” Parliament Library, and St Paul’s Cathedral. A short walk away on Mulgrave Street is Old St Paul’s Church, which is the best example of a gothic cathedral made of timber.

I feel very sad that tomorrow Mariel and I will part ways; I will take the Cook Strait Ferry to Picton on the south island and Mariel will take a bus back to Auckland. Tonight we will have a celebratory drink! I’m glad we’ll have the morning together tomorrow, likely take a tour of the parliament building and see the Museum of Wellington City & Sea. My only regret is that we didn’t have time to see Zealandia. It’s an ecological sanctuary that is trying to give people the experience of what it was like to be the first person to step into the NZ bush over a thousand years ago. At night they give guided tours where you can encounter kiwi birds, along with the other 30 species of birds and reptiles they have in the Sanctuary Valley. Oh well, it gives me a reason to come back to Wellington!