13
April 2014
First
things first. We felt two 6.2 on the Richter scale earthquakes today!
We
had a better (and quieter) sleep tonight than last night. Better, but still not
good. There’s a lot to be said for having your own room… But at least we’re not
sharing a bed – at least not until we get to Ann and Duncan’s.
We
had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. $19 for a Continental Breakfast! Each!!
We made sure we got our money’s worth. I had two Weetbix, fresh pineapple
slices, pears, yoghurt with apricot topping, two freshly cooked pancakes with
maple syrup, apple juice, cup of peppermint green tea, and a piece of toast with
margarine and apricot jam. (Just as well. We didn’t have lunch until about
3.30)
The
pancake maker was very Thunderbirds. You pushed the OKAY button, waited a
couple of minutes, and then your floral shaped pancakes rolled out of end and
onto a plate. They tasted similar to McDonalds pancakes, but the maple syrup
was nicer.
Then
we went back up to our room to clean our teeth, grab our things and head out. We
bought our 3-in-one coats to brave the snow at Arthur’s Pass last year (enough
said about that) and one month ago I was saying that I was taking mine and D.C.
was saying that it was too warm for them. Then she decided that she may as
well. Because its autumn and it wasn’t too cold inside, but the weather forecast
predicted rain, we decided to discard the inner warmth-but-not-rain-protection
coat and just wear the outer “raincoat”. It wasn’t raining when we left, but we
figured that would be all the protection we’d need.
I
told you how the Travelodge was a warren to work out how to get to reception
from the carpark. It’s nearly as bad to try to escape the place onto Lambton
Quay. You take the lift down to the first floor… Now, these lifts aren’t quite
as bad as the ones at the Mecure in Auckland, that is it’s not quite like Thunderbird
Three taking off, more like a jet plane. But yesterday after signing in we
summonsed one, I wheeled my case in, and it attempted to shut the door before
D.C. even had a chance to move. We’ve learnt that these are not lifts to muck
around with.
Anyway,
this morning we managed to negotiate the lifts down to the first floor, and
found our way outside (there was only one way that we could go, so it wasn’t
too bad), chatted with another couple as we walked down the stairs that make up
part of Plimmers Steps (there’s a statue of Mr Plimmer and his dog Fritz at the
bottom) and then found our way to the Wellington i-SITE/Information Centre (I
don’t have this one programmed into Word.) We found out how to get to the
various places and then decided that it was cold enough that we returned to our
rooms, reaffixed the inner jacket into our coats, and grabbed our hats!!
You could
tell who the Wellingtonians were. They were the ones in shorts and t-shirts.
A
slight exaggeration.
Only
slight.
One
thing that I meant to say on the train trip yesterday, was that how the leaves
are only just starting to change colour and are barely starting to fall. The
further south we got they were just bare.
We were trying to work out what this was. I thought it looked like a crayfish. D.C. thought it looked like (of all things) the Mole! |
So, what is the first thing I take a photo of in Wellington? A public toilet. |
Anyway,
once we were rugged up, we ventured out again. We went down to the waterfront
to get our bearings and wandered along to find where you got the ferry to Day’s
Bay. Once that was ascertained, and the timetable perused, we went in search of
the Wellington Museum of City and Sea. This used to be the Maritime Museum and
we haven’t been there in years. We went in at about 10.30 and came out, hungry,
about 3.00pm.
The
museum is housed in the old Bond Store where cargo was brought through and
which was later converted into the Harbour Board offices. The boardroom was a
very grand, imposing chamber to enter after the rather dark, low-ceilinged
rooms of the museum.
The
museum had some very interesting displays. One, telling about the Maori
mythology of the landscape used video projected onto glass to give the
impression of tiny people telling you the story. Joanna Paul was the narrator
(remember her from Wildtrack? I think she moved over to Maori Television) and
the way that it was filmed and displayed she was no taller than a kerosene lamp
and some bottles. But what was remarkable was that as she (and Maui in one of
the tales) walked up and down behind the lamp, glass bottles, Sextant, and bits
of wood, her image behaved as you would have expected. That is she disappeared
behind the solid objects, could be seen through the “holes” in objects made up
of various bits (like the Sextant) and could be seen through the glass bottles –
albeit with a green tinge as she would have if it had been real. At one point a
wooden hatch in the ceiling flew open (slid back, actually) and the Taniwha’s
eye peered in. The two tales were of the two Taniwha who lived in a lake until
one of them rammed his way out and escaped, creating Wellington Harbour. The
other story was of Maui taking fire from his grandmother – the Fire Goddess.
Not a great photo because of the low light, but you can see Joanna Paul's ghostly figure |
Naturally
for a museum dedicated to the seas around Wellington, there is a comparatively large
area devoted to the sinking of the Wahine on the 10th of April 1968.
We watched a film about that event, which sadly tried to add to the atmosphere
and drama of the old black and white photos by moving the camera about as if
you were on the waves. It certainly would have added to the drama if the cinematography
had made someone seasick!
It must have been terrifying to be in those little boats in the most ferocious storm recorded in New Zealand |
But
it was a tragedy that took 51 lives on the day and the few items that were
displayed were very poignant. It’s something that has special meaning to us in
that D.C. was in the maternity hospital in Wanganui during Cyclone Giselle. As
she wrote today there was an aerial flapping about like a windscreen washer
outside the window. A nurse pulled the curtains and when they were opened again
the aerial was gone.
And
that’s let the cat out of the bag!
One of the displays of the Bond Store. The cat's waiting for the rat. The rat is the blur. I waited for ages for that picture... |
When
we left at 3.00pm we hunted down something to eat. Over the road from Plimmer
Steps is the old BNZ building. Fortunately instead of pulling it down, they’ve
done it up into an arcade so we went in in the hope of finding some lunch. There
was a Starbucks (Overrated. We’ve been to one once before. Sorry, twice – first
and last time) and another café called Smiths the Grocers (?). In there we had
a hot chocolate each and I had a satay chicken filo $12.20. Very nice but there
was nothing of the five plus a day in it. The wall was interesting. They had
old newspaper pages from July 1969 – any guesses what was special about that
date*? – as well as the first bomb dropped on Japan, the Boer War, Kennedy’s assassination,
and Prince Charles. His article was on the other page from the one with the
articles about the moon landing*.
Then
we went on a hunt for St James Theatre, so that we’d know where to go on
Thursday evening. It’s miles away!
Okay,
another exaggeration, but we’re not that keen on wandering back to the hotel in
the dark. Especially if it’s starting to rain like it was when we were walking.
D.C.’s
been looking for an e-reader light (she left hers at Rangitoto and theorised
that it could stay there and she could get another), so we were trying various
shops. We went into the Sony shop and they had some that would fit her
e-reader, if we knew which model it was, but it was back in the hotel so we’ll
have to take it back later. I’ve been looking for a new MP3 player for some
time, so I asked what they had (you’d expect the offspring of the Sony Walkman
to be good) and they had one (Pink!) that was $123, but she let me have for the
$99.95 of the cheaper models.
Talk
about your impulse purchases.
We
also went into the Willis St New World to buy some Pams Cranberry and Apple Instant
Oat sachets and some Bell Berry Green Tea (cheaper than another breakfast on
floor six)
Coming
back we tried to find a shortcut and found ourselves close to Te Papa. As it
was free, the time was 5.20pm and it didn’t close until 6.00pm, we thought we’d
go in there (into the dry) and see an exhibit. The first we found, which I was
very happy about, was Awesome Forces. This is the one about volcanoes and
seismic activities… such as earthquakes…
See
where I’m heading.
We
didn’t have time for a proper look, but if there’s been no change since two
years ago the only mention of the Christchurch Earthquake of 2011 is that the
exhibit might be distressing for those who’d been caught up in it. The main earthquake
focused on was the 1986 6.2 Edgecombe Earthquake. So we went for two “rides” in
the simulator – which is a one roomed house with a TV displaying “interviews”
and footage standing on hydraulic jacks, which shake you all about. The shaking’s
not as violent as the representation of Mt Tarawera’s eruption in the Rotorua
Museum, but it would have given you a hang of a fright if you’d had to live
through the real thing.
We’ll
go back later for other fill in times.
Neither
of us were hungry by 6.00pm, but D.C. didn’t want to waste my mobile WiFi so
she suggested that we find a McDonalds. We found one (where the sole person on
checkout duty was running around like a one armed paperhanger) and bought a hot
chocolate for her and a chicken noodle salad for me. I have to say here that the
salad was pretty good value. It was a meal size, with plenty of carrots, tomatoes,
onion and lettuce of course, as well as tasty chicken and noodles. With the hot
choc it came to $13 in total and I’d have to say that it tasted better than you
would expect from a McDonalds. We checked our emails (once we got our tablets
talking to the WiFi) and then came back to the hotel and had a cup of tea.
Off
to work out this Sony Walkman.
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