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02 April, 2007
Wellington, New Zealand

We left the south island, and took a short and extremely bumpy flight in a tiny plane over to Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. We got there pretty late in the evening and checked into the Museum Hotel, a boutique hotel with regular rooms and more deluxe “apartments,” which we were in. The whole hotel was decked out in 70s bachelor pad-ish decor. Think lots of dark brocade fabric on the walls, lots of leather, mirrors EVERYWHERE. The bathroom was pretty extreme, with a huge wall to wall mirror and the biggest bathtub I’ve ever seen in my life.

After we got settled we headed out in search of food and found The Green Parrot, which was the only bad meal we had in New Zealand. Super greasy, huge portions, food just thrown on the plate. I was like, we’ve found American cuisine in NZ. We weren’t surprised to learn that it was started by an American sailor who jumped ship in the early 20th century.

The next day Mom and I walked around in search of a place to get a manicure and pedicure. Between all the walking and our adventures on the beach the past weekend, our nails were looking seriously busted. So in the states you can pretty much find a nail place on every corner, and unless it’s a fancy spa, walkins are always welcome. We had the hardest time seeking these places out, and every time we’d go in one, they were booked up for like a week straight. After literally hours of searching, and being turned down by several rude people, we finally found a place that did a really great job.

The rest of the day was spent around the hotel until around 6, when Suzie, one of the women from the conference, picked us up and headed us out for a night on the town. We went to her house and had some appetizers, and then headed out to hear a seminar on “whole foods.” I put that in quotes because we heard literally nothing about food, and more about the “seven ancient secrets to lifelong health” from an American cowboy man with a huge picture of himself behind himself while he was speaking. About 100 people paid $35 each to see this shyster (luckily we got in free). Ready for the ancient secrets of health? I’m gonna lay em on you.

1. Breathe air.
2. Drink water. Oh, and make sure you electrify your water first by blowing on it.
3. Walk around. That’s what legs are for.
4. Get as much sunshine as possible. Oh, and too much sun in no way causes skin cancer. That’s a myth perpetuated by the disease industry.

Those are all the tips we stayed for but I have a few other tidbits to share. Eat three grapefruits a day and you’ll never have heart problems. Any health issue in the body is caused by a clogged up tube. Carrots are good for your eyes because they look like an eye when you cut it. Same with walnuts and your brain. Oh, and they never cured polio.

Needless to say we ran out of there laughing. I was really dismayed to see some people just eating it up. THIRTY FIVE DOLLARS? And he didn’t even talk about food! What a ripoff. We ate dinner at a delicious Turkish restaurant and headed back to the hotel.

The next day I walked around and explored the city a bit, including the harbor, which is where I took those lovely photos above. Wellington is very arts-centric, and I hit up several contemporary art galleries (no cameras allowed anywhere) and saw some awesome video art as well as knitted and crocheted items by Jacquelyn Greenback at City Gallery Wellington.

After I had my fill of artsy stuff, I headed over to Te Papa, which is the national museum of New Zealand. The place was absolutely huge and I didn’t have time to explore very much of it before it was time to head out of Wellington.

The coolest thing I got to see at the museum was a large exhibition on Egypt called Egypt: Beyond the Tomb. They made you check your bag in case you wanted to run off with a canopic jar or anything. I loved this exhibition though. Ever since I was a little kid I loved learning about mummies and ancient Egypt. When my Mom ran a small school during my elementary and junior high years, we always had huge interactive lessons on Egypt, including a “live mummification” skit, where spaghetti and other gross looking food were “pulled out of a dead body” and made to look like guts. To see actual canopic jars, not to mention a mummy and its’ inner and outer sarcophagus was pretty awesome.

The museum also had tons of Maori carvings and artifacts, as well as local art to New Zealand and smaller exhibits like “Awesome Forces” which showcased NZ’s volatile and natural landscape.

Another one I especially liked was Blood. Earth. Fire. which chronicled NZ’s journey from forests and wetlands into farms and settlements, including introduction of foreign plants and animals.

I ran out of time at the museum and headed back to the conference center, where we all got loaded up and set out for a 2 hour drive from Wellington to Palmerston North.

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