exploring.

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Today was very much a day of exploring. Somehow we managed to avoid jet lag altogether and woke up at 6:30 am full of energy. It is Saturday in the summer here in New Zealand so there is lots to do and explore. First up was a walk around Oriental Bay, a popular area for swimming, sports, and fishing. Also, birds. Then we headed over to Civic Square, where the local PrideFest was occurring. I was shocked at how absolutely tame the whole event was. There was nary a nipple in site! Then it was over to iSite, a visitors information center. We picked up some literature (swimming with dolphins!!!!) and headed on to our next destination, Te Papa.

Te Papa is the local museum of art and history, with many of it's exhibits focusing on culture. It is a
beautiful, modern, six-story building with exhibits both inside and out. It is also, for the most part, free. Some traveling exhibits do require an entrance fee, but there is so much else to explore that it hardly matters. There was a wonderful exhibit outside that introduces the patron to the New Zealand bush, explaining the local plant life, showing the process by which caves are formed, and inviting visitors to hug and climb on some of the oldest rocks in the country. Some parts of the museum are quite difficult to navigate as it isn't always apparent where one exhibit begins and the other ends. On many occasions we would miss parts of an exhibit because we unknowingly found ourselves in another. There also isn't much of a sense of how you should walk through any given exhibit and often you find yourself looping back through things you have already seen to find sections that you missed. There was an excellent exhibit about natural disasters though, with an earthquake simulator. The line was long and we didn't stay in that section long enough to try it out for ourselves, but it seemed rather impressive.

Ordering pizza!
After Te Papa we made our way one block over to Waitangi Park for the Pasifika Festival: We Are the Ocean. This was a festival celebrating the culture. There was music, arts, and the most delicious smelling food! Unfortunately, none of it was vegetarian so we had to go on a quest for lunch. We walked 45 minutes searching for food and more specifically, Cuba Street. Richard told us that Cuba Street offers the more funky-side of Wellington, with buskers, bars, and shops. We walked 45 minutes to no avail, we stopped once we saw signs for Lower Hutt, and opted to turn left back into town. Eventually we found a cute little burger joint in our price range, we were about to go in when we noticed the address, we had found the promised land, Cuba Street! Seth suggested we continue looking and right across the way was a pizza shop. Now I had been warned that it's hard to find a decent pizza in New Zealand, but Heaven did it up right. Not only was it just $14 for a Margherita Pizza, it was a delicious Margherita Pizza! I am pretty certain we paid more than that in Boston for a one of subpar quality.

After leaving Heaven we made our way down Cuba Street, stopping Op-Shops along the way to see the prices on second-hand clothes and searching for a suitable replacement hat. We found none that could compare, but we did find me a new pair of shoes. They weren't Pumas and they cost more than I have ever paid for shoes in my life, but they were comfortable so they will have to do. As soon as we arrived at the end of Cuba Street, we realized how foolish we had been. We had walked forty-five minutes to get to a street that is a five minute walk from the hotel!

Now here we sit in the hotel room and it is just 5:30 in the afternoon! Perhaps it is because we are unaccustomed to summer at the moment, but there seems to be countless hours in the day. Or perhaps by traveling to the past to get to the future really did make us time-travelers.

PS: We still haven't been able to find Sherlock or Doctor Who on the television, but there is an upcoming event in the city entitled the “Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular” and a companion program, “Doctor Who: Celebrating 50 Years of Adventures in Space and Time”. 

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