Travelling & Wellington
With a free day in Wellington, I spent most of it walking around exploring, and taking photos. In the morning I walked around Te Papa, the big museum in Wellington. Quite an interesting exhibition on forces of nature - earthquakes, volcanoes and such like, of which there are plenty in New Zealand! The South island is more prone to earthquakes, and the north island has plenty of active volcanoes. Hopefully they'll stay quiet for a couple of months at least!
Also had a walk around another museum about the history of Wellington, with particular regard to travel. Interesting presentation on some Maori legends about fire there. Did a little shopping as needed to pick up a pay as you go SIM for making phone calls - if anyone fancies ringing me they can try +64210445877, but I'll probably still be texting people from my other phone.
Final part of that day was spent taking a trip up the cable car to the botanical gardens overlooking the city, which was nice. Went to the bar in the evening to not do very well in a killer pool tournament, then retired to bed ready for an early start.
Next morning, we had to be up fairly early for a trip to Taupo (pronounced Toe-Paw). Quite a long journey in an uncomfortable bus, made worse by the weather clouding over. This meant that we were unable to see the three local volcanoes, one of which is Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings (can't remember the proper name for it at the moment!). Hopefully on the way back down it will be clearer! Taupo sits on the edge of a huge lake (the biggest in the southern hemisphere) - 606 sq km! Looks very much like an ocean, and apparently even the plants that grow here are ones normally found on the coast too.
On the bus, activity sheets get passed around for you to choose at each destination. I hadn't really thought much about this one, but decided to opt for Sky Diving, as Taupo is the cheapest place in NZ to do it (NZ$150 for a 12,000ft dive), but unfortunately it was rained off. As I have to come back through here at least twice more, I'm sure I'll get the chance at some point! Instead, the rest of the day was spent sitting in the hostel avoiding the rain, before heading down to a local bar with a load of people from the Kiwi Experience bus to do the local pub quiz, which we somehow managed to win. Unfortunately the $50 bar tab prize didn't go far. Would've been nicer if we hadn't argued over the final face in the picture round and chose the wrong one, causing us to miss out on the $200 prize!
Today, I was supposed to be getting on another bus going East to Gisborne, but unfortuntely this was already full and I have to spend another couple of days here while waiting for the next one. As today is looking like better weather, I'm off now to see if I can strap myself to someone who will jump out of a plane! Bye for now!
Also had a walk around another museum about the history of Wellington, with particular regard to travel. Interesting presentation on some Maori legends about fire there. Did a little shopping as needed to pick up a pay as you go SIM for making phone calls - if anyone fancies ringing me they can try +64210445877, but I'll probably still be texting people from my other phone.
Final part of that day was spent taking a trip up the cable car to the botanical gardens overlooking the city, which was nice. Went to the bar in the evening to not do very well in a killer pool tournament, then retired to bed ready for an early start.
Next morning, we had to be up fairly early for a trip to Taupo (pronounced Toe-Paw). Quite a long journey in an uncomfortable bus, made worse by the weather clouding over. This meant that we were unable to see the three local volcanoes, one of which is Mt. Doom from Lord of the Rings (can't remember the proper name for it at the moment!). Hopefully on the way back down it will be clearer! Taupo sits on the edge of a huge lake (the biggest in the southern hemisphere) - 606 sq km! Looks very much like an ocean, and apparently even the plants that grow here are ones normally found on the coast too.
On the bus, activity sheets get passed around for you to choose at each destination. I hadn't really thought much about this one, but decided to opt for Sky Diving, as Taupo is the cheapest place in NZ to do it (NZ$150 for a 12,000ft dive), but unfortunately it was rained off. As I have to come back through here at least twice more, I'm sure I'll get the chance at some point! Instead, the rest of the day was spent sitting in the hostel avoiding the rain, before heading down to a local bar with a load of people from the Kiwi Experience bus to do the local pub quiz, which we somehow managed to win. Unfortunately the $50 bar tab prize didn't go far. Would've been nicer if we hadn't argued over the final face in the picture round and chose the wrong one, causing us to miss out on the $200 prize!
Today, I was supposed to be getting on another bus going East to Gisborne, but unfortuntely this was already full and I have to spend another couple of days here while waiting for the next one. As today is looking like better weather, I'm off now to see if I can strap myself to someone who will jump out of a plane! Bye for now!
2 Comments:
At 9:49 PM, Dan said…
$50? I want some of that action for texting me far too early in the morning! I assume I got the answer right, of course...
At 6:18 AM, Richard Lawley said…
It wasn't that early in the morning - clearly after 9:00! And yes, you were right, but someone else had already told us the answer!
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