Which way do we go?

This is yesterday’s post. Our hotel didn’t have internet, and we had a busy day, so we got behind a bit.

"Which way do we go?" was a common phrase, or at least thought, during our stay in Wellington.

Ohakune was the perfect stopover location on our way to Wellington, and we still had over four hours of driving, including the crazy Wellington traffic. We set out early, eating and packing everything up by 7:30 am. Once again, the landscape was beautiful during the drive. There was a lot of farm ground on the way and part of it was the closest we’ve seen to Kansas, except for mountains in the background and more vegetation growing.

Farmland as seen driving from Ohakune to Wellington.

You can see the mountains in the background.

It was the first time we met any speeders. The maximum speed limit here is 100 kilometers per hour, which is about 60mph. Most people go back and forth between 85-100 kph on the highway (50-60mph). It was a pre-curser to what was to come. Wellington traffic was the worst traffic we’ve had. This was mostly because Wellington is built on a very hilly, steep region (like what you visualize in scenes of Greek Sea Towns, but with British architecture).  What we found out later is that Wellington was founded on a grid, despite the sharp hills and valleys. There really isn’t room for modern roads in Wellington, which makes for quite a few one way streets and very confusing traffic. Mix that with a GPS that can’t get a good signal through the skyscrapers, and we had an interesting time getting around the downtown area.

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand and is known for its artsy culture. We enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the town, as well as the diversity we encountered here.

Weta Cave was our “must see” in Wellington. Weta is a company that does consulting work on many movies you’ve probably seen, such as Avatar, the Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, King Kong, TinTin, District 9, Halo and The Water Horse. They specialize in the special. They do all the most memorable costumes (think hand-made chain mail), makeup (like full rubber paint on suits for Orcs), special effects (for when there aren’t really 10,000 actors to make up a “crowded street” scene), props, computer effects, and much more. It was quite fun to look around and see a video of the restricted areas. You can’t go back there or you’d see the special stuff for movies that aren’t out yet. Weta employs 30,000 people that all work in one area of Wellington called Miramar – and they all park on the street. We were lucky to find a parking spot half a mile from Weta Cave.

Posing in front of the Weta Cave sign.

Ahhh, an orc! Weta Cave had a lot of awesome movie memorabilia.

We continued our trip at Mount Victoria. This provided the best views of the city, as well as a lot of scenic walks.  We ate a nice picnic lunch. We haven’t eaten in a single restaurant since the first day, but we’ve saved a lot of time and money this way. It’s also enjoyable to have nice, quiet meals together in beautiful places. We walked along several trail paths while we were here.  Several scenes from the Lord of the Rings were filmed here, and we saw a few of them. The hikes were steeply up and down hill, so it was fairly exhausting.

Posing at the top of Mount Victoria. There are so many houses ALL over in Wellington!

After Mount Victoria, we drove to Old Saint Paul’s, which is a church.  As we walked up, we noticed a bride standing in the doorway waiting to enter her wedding.  Obviously, we couldn’t go in because of the wedding, but it was nice to see the church getting proper use.

Our last destination was Te Papa, a free museum of New Zealand history. We weren’t sure what to expect, and were pleasantly surprised with how much detail went into the six floor museum. We enjoyed the exhibits on volcanic activity and earthquakes quite a bit. There were many exhibits on Maori culture that were the best we’d seen. The top floor was filled with contemporary art, and upon entering, we were handed a clipboard that had questions about several paintings.  When you were done, you put your sticky notes on a big board and were able to see how others had answered. The answers were quite funny. One of the paintings was supposed to be about breaking the rules (I don’t know how black and white shapes break the rules unless possibly it’s not allowed to be art). The associated question asked when you had last broken the rules. Answers we thought of were “walking on the right side of the sidewalk in New Zealand,” and other people wrote things like “running in the museum” and some confessed age old sins that they obviously had been thinking about for decades.

Te Papa museum - posing in front of the replica of a traditional Maori building.

Since we had so efficiently hit the highlights of Wellington, we had some extra time in the evening. We decided to pick up a movie (Hunger Games, to be exact), and in the process, experienced downtown Wellington on a Friday night. We walked up and down the streets, ate gelato and then made it back to the movie theater to sit in our assigned seats. An upside is that we could bring in our own drinks. Most people buy their tickets online, select their seats, and print out their tickets. Everyone showed up 5 minutes before the movie with bags of food and drinks. By the time we got back to our hotel, it was nearly midnight and we were exhausted. Cindy said this bed was nicer, but I never really know since I’m so tired. Tomorrow, we cross to the South Island.

Love, the George family