Wellington

It's been a while since my last post. I've been busy here visiting and doing heaps of things.

I arrived in Wellington on Monday evening after a short 1 hr plane ride on a 737 a quarter full. The domestic flights here are a pleasant experience in which security was minimal and you only have to arrive 1/2 hr before your flight leaves even in Auckland, city of 1.5 millon.

(Waterfront on a cold, windy day in Welly)

In Wellington, I was met by Tom and Micki and their Kiwi friends Rob and Debby. What incredibly nice people they are! They invited me into their beautiful, quaint home for a stay (which is ending up to be a week) and we've eaten some excellent home cooked meals.(A nice view of the bay from Rob and Debby's house. The harbor is muddy from all the rain the day before.)

Wellington is incredibly beautiful and reminds me a lot of Seattle. Its very hilly, compact and full of art. The city is clean and fairly new. It was rainy all week and lots of wind is characteristic here giving Wellington a well deserved nickname of "Windy Welly." The first day we walked around downtown and saw the parlimentary buildings and the waterfront. Civic square is really nice, surrounded by libraries and art. There is a ball made of metal fern leaves that hangs in the middle. They have an excellent modern museum here on the waterfront called Te Papa. It's fairly new and has 5 floors of stuff on geology, Maori culture, science, history, etc. You can spend ages here and move around lots since it is not crowded at all by American standards. And the best part...its FREE! Imagine that. I didn't spend much time in there and missed the Waitangi treaty (sorry X-prof, btw who is X-prof? Dr. B. is that you?), however I did see an actual copy at a parlimentary building, really neat. They were in hermatically sealed boxes at low light. There was a fire and the treaty was somewhat destroyed because of that. Pretty sad how much land that the British took away from Maori's. I did see exhibits on Maori culture and about forces that formed NZ. It included an earthquake room. I hope to spend some more time there in a few days, since I'll be in Wellington for at least 3 more days.

(Civic sqare, downtown Wellington. See the giant hanging ball in the center, its an art exhibit: a metal ball carved into fern leaves.)

(Parlimentary Buildings, the Beehive (left) and legislature building on right)

The next day we took a drive to the countryside. There are so many exotic trees and bush here. There is a silver fern, which is the symbol of NZ and they are like trees, look like something out of the Jurrasic era. Martinborough is a small wine town, mainly populated recently due to vineyard growth. Past town we drove by some sheep (imagine that) and on to Julicher Vineyard, owned by a friend of Rob's.

(Little hotel in the cute town of Martinborough)

(Sheep waiting to get sheared, partly for need for wool, and partly for animal well-being. Really cute ones!)
(Julicher Vineyard near Martinborough. Mainly Pinot Noir grapes and some Sauvignon Blanc. The Pinot Noir in NZ is excellent and growing in popularity globally!)

Yesterday I took a ride through the harbor here in Wellington on our first nice day (even no wind!). It was beautiful and full of sail boats. The water seems so clean here.(Days Harbor in Wellington. The rocks are sedimentary and really rough. You can tell this place is very young geologically)

Well I'm here till at least Tuesday and I'm looking to buy a campervan to I can tour the North Island before more friends come to visit! More later...thanks for reading. Cheers.