wellington

i crossed over to the north island from picton, opting to take the 4 hour ferry over flying. it reminded me very much of the trip i took with my dad to victoria from vancouver and back. unfortunately, a storm came up that ruined the passage's view with fog. remaining nautical i read the second book in the master and commander series and napped in the reclining seats. once we docked i caught the bus to my hostel where lyds surprised me! to celebrate i put on my best and only sweater and took her out to eat at a nice restaurant. note: no fries were consumed at this meal. wine was. we went back to the room to play scrabble with our irish roomies. the night's rest i needed however, had to be put off by a scuffle with some swine. i do not take guff.

as i only had one day in wellington we were very active. first we got up early and had to secure a new hostel. i lucked in to getting a place with a movie theme as it was a long weekend and pink floyd is in town for a show. note on the city: wellington is the capital of new zealand and the second biggest city (pop. of 400k). it is a giant wind tunnel of a city with wind being funnelled through through the cook straight right into downtown. it is so windy that even captain cook himself could not enter the harbour due to the wind when he sailed through. wellington was also the departure point for us marines in the second world war into the pacific theatre. in order to see the city lyds and i started with the harbour and lagoon and walked down the waterfront. beautiful day. highlight of the walk was seeing the esmeralda docked in the harbour out of chile. it was a massive sailing ship who's crew allowed lyds to pose with them for some pics. then we ambled around the city seeing the parliament house that is shaped like a beehive. the construction of the house was started in 1969 and finished in 1982 by sir basil spence, an englishman. apparently, it is hell to work in, but the interesting design came from him sketching a pattern he found on a matchbox on a napkin at a party. after luch we hit up the museum of new zealand (te papa tongarewa) which had a price tag of $350 million when opened in1998. we basically spent all our time in the museum's one exhibit where you have to solve a murder by examining several suspect's houses. the sets were very interactive - so you could lift objects to look under them, etc. for clues and word puzzles. being a little too overzealous i pulled down a picture that i thought might have something hidden behind it. oops. more clouseau than holmes i guess.

that night we went out to a bar to watch the all blacks play a test game against france. france got a good kicking.

taupo next.