32. Bonus Day in Wellington, New Zealand (10/31/2024)

       The solution to the problem of Air Chatham's schedule change was obvious in the end, but not easy or inexpensive to accomplish. While Mom and I slept, AirTrecks rebooked our November 1-4 flight to be November 2-4. Even though we only needed to push back our outbound flight, the entire ticket had to be rebooked, costing $450 per person and the loss of business class seats. That last bit was adding insult to injury, but Fiji Airways had no intention of solving a problem caused by another airline for free. We both opened our eyes around 8 am, felt relief that we now had a Saturday morning flight out of Auckland, and then fell asleep again for another two hours. 

       Mom can attest to the fact that I was irritated and grumpy when I went to bed, but when we finally woke up, all was forgiven and I was eager for us to get starting taking advantage of our new bonus day in Wellington. I traveled with my brother in the north of the North Island over 20 years ago, but I have  been to the south part of the north island. 

       Around one we left the hotel, going down a single flight of stairs into the airport (so convenient)! The first task was exchanging money in preparation for our next stop in Fiji, so while mom did that, I walked around a little bit. One of Wellington's claims to fame now is the connection with Lord of the Rings. Not only were several filming locations around Wellington used in the movies, a local concept design, special effects, and props manufacturing company here called Wētā Workshop was heavily involved in creating costumes and effects. The airport was one of many places around town in which the Lord of the Rings connection was front and center.

WELLINGTON AIPORT and LORD OF THE RINGS

The cashier recognized not only that Mom was American, but also that she had a Southern accent. Well done!

Smaug at the Wellington Airport

Air New Zealand planes in foreground; one of Wellington's mountainous residential areas in the background

GEOGRAPHY & PERSONAL CABLE CARS

       Our Uber driver from the airport to downtown was a Cambodian refugee who, when learning that we were curious about the Wellington's famed "inclinators," was really gracious with his time and took us the long route along the coast so that we could get a nice view of the harbor as well as a close-up look of the private cable cars. Wellington is a Winston-Salem sized city trying to cram itself into a small amount of land. The hills that rise steeply from the harbor have restricted the city's sprawl, so houses have crawled up the hillsides rather than being very spread out into suburbs.

       Most houses can be accessed by winding roads through the mountains, but for some houses getting road access was either impossible or impracticable. Therefore, the only option are these personal cable cars in which they park at the bottom of the hill and then are pulled up the hill to their houses by the cable system.

I read that there were over 300 of the cars in use at one time, but stricter regulations and higher maintenance costs have led a number of homeowners to realize that they are "nice to have" and "not need to have." With this, the number of active personal cable cars is down to around 100.

       As we were coming into the downtown area, we were stopped by police doing random drunk driving tests. Our guide rolled down his window, counted to five while a breathalyzer was held in front of his mouth, and was cleared to keep moving. He said that there is a significant impaired driving problem, regardless of the hour of day.

Coming into town

Image from internet since I was sitting on the harbor side of the Uber.

Breathalyzer is in right hand

       The rest of the afternoon, until it closed at 6 pm, was spet at  Te Papa Tongarewa, the Museum of New Zealand. Multiple people had recommended the museum to us, including the Air Chathams representative that we talked to from the park bench in Sydney. Mom has been here previously, but was enthusiastic about coming back because of the breadth and quality of the museum's exhibits. 

       Our first stop was the museum cafe. While we were waiting for our food, we watched my sister's location icon in GoogleMaps move along I-20 from Atlanta to Greensboro. She will be spending the weekend with Dad in Georgia. It was fun when their Ring detected motion and we were able to watch Beth and her bags enter the house.

Wlcome back, Beth! Love, your stalkers.

MUSEUM OF NEW ZEALAND TE PAPA TONGAREWA

       Te Papa is basically the national museum of New Zealand and has exhibits on 4 of 6 floors of its enormous harborside building. The other two floors have event and theater space. 

Stunning waharoa (gateway) at the entrace to the museum

NATURE 

       We started on the main floor with Nature. It was a large exhibit, brobably taking up half the exhibition space onthe floor plan. All that space was needed because of the New Zealand's extraordinary biodiversity and the need to push for more conservation. A 2023 report found that 75% of NZ's native species are at risk. I spent extra time in the native bird exhibit. Along with a model or image of the bird, you pressed a button to hear a bird call (if available) and learned where it could be found, or when it was declared extinct. Factoid: the NZ stitchbird is the only bird species known to mate face to face. We also spent time marveling at the colossal squid and the story behind its accidental capture in 2007. Another factoid: the eyeballs of the colossal squid are the size of soccer balls and their tentacles contain both suckers and a series of rotating hooks on the ends?

Ever since my sister disparaged my photo of the Indonesian sun bear in "happy baby" position showing its tuchus, she's be getting regular images of the behinds of other animals.  Here is the "nono" of a Giant wētā/wētāpunga!

Colossal squid on display (photo from internet)

MAORI EXHIBITS (TEXT FORTHCOMING)

       After more than an hour in the Nature exhibits, we went upstairs for the exhibits on the history and culture of the Maori people. The push in the last 30 years to reclaim knowledge of traditional seafaring and navigation techniques was fascinating. The devotion on display of efforts to maintain a connection with culture and history beautiful in both a spiritual and physical sense. The replicas of haka boats and wharenui meeting houses were stunning.

      Te Papa also had a very well done video projection at the entrace to the Maori section that demonstrated the difference in language between the English and Maori version of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, the founding document of NZ. Significantly, the word ‘sovereignty’ was translated as ‘kawanatanga’ (governance). Some Māori believed they were giving up government over their lands but retaining the right to manage their own affairs. The English version guaranteed ‘undisturbed possession’ of all their ‘properties’, but the Māori version guaranteed ‘tino rangatiratanga’ (full authority) over ‘taonga’ (treasures, which may be intangible). The differences in interpretation and initial intention have been the source of some conflict, but NZ has a tribunal that bases itself of the spirit of the treaty and is employed to settle disputes related to the treaty. 

Treaty of Waitangi exhibit

THE SCALE OF OUR GALLIPOLI

        With only 50 minutes before the museum closed, we stepped into the Gallipoli exhibit without really knowing what we were gonig to be seeing. It is an extraordiary exhibit, opened in 2015, on the centential anniversary of the start of the Battle of Gallipoli, a disastrous campaign for the Allied troops in WWI. It was significant for NZ because they trained and sent forces to support the French and English in repelling the Turkish army who had joined forces with German, putting a major trade route in the region at risk.

        Watching a video with an overview of Gallipoli would have been helpful, since I was not familiar with it and there was too much information in the exhibit to synthesize. The exhibit centered on the stories of 8 ordinary New Zealanders who were put in "extraordinary" circumstances. The exhibit included models of each of the 8 individuals at 2.4:1 scale. We have never seen any sculptures or models that impressive in our lives. We learned later that they were made by Weta Workshop (mentioned above) and took over 24,000 hours to make. Hair follicles were individually painted on each model, hairs were meticulously added one at a time...they were truly amazing pieces of work.

Prologue to the exhibit

First of eight 2.4:1 scale models

Entry room displaying soldier's kit and weapons

Model of one of the hillsides in which the forces were dug into

Look at Mom's shadow in front to get a sense of scale

Recreated officer's bunker

CABLE CAR AND SUNSET STROLL THROUGH WELLINGTON BOTANIC GARDEN

            We were hastened out of the museum by the docents right at six, but neither of us were ready to a go back to the hotel. We took a stroll along the harbor, which had warmed up while we were in the museum. It was bitter cold and windy when we arrived, and we have since learned that Wellington holds the title of world's windiest city. Sorry Chicago!

            We took the Wellington Cable car up to the Botanic Gardens for a sunset stroll and great lookout point over the city. On the field below, there were young men having cricket practice. We did not realize how popular cricket was in this part of the world until we started talking sports with the Aussies in Norfolk Island. 

A view of downtown from Te Papa

Sign at the bottom of the cable car route

Sign at the top of the cable car route

Cricket practice

One of the cable cars on its way up

Ti kouka (cabbage tree)

Daily golden hour selfie

A Weta Workshop Lord of the Rings costume in the upper cable car station

            The day ended later tha we had hoped, primarily due to poor service at Manha Hotel's on-site restaurant. The luke-warm soup that took over 30 minutes to be served was sent back, and we ended up with some really tasty focaccia and a warm beet salad in it's place....after only 10 minutes.

              Tomorrow is the big day -- the day that we spend >5 hours in a plane for <2 hours on the ground. But that's what I signed up for. :). We packed our bags again and set our alarms for 5 am.