Close Encounters of the Foreign Kind

We killed about half the day breakfasting, showering, writing, and waiting for our electronics to charge. It was almost 1:00 PM before we finally ventured out. The bus that would take us downtown stopped just a few meters up the road and came by hourly. We realized this about 10 minutes before the next one was due, so collected ourselves quickly and went out to meet it. The ride was very quick and the bus dropped us just a few blocks from our first stop for the day: the Te Papa museum.

We headed east through the city until we came to Jack Ilott Green, a grassy amphitheater next to a paved walking/cycling path on the waterfront. We took a few pictures, appreciated the view, and then continued south. The day's strong winds pushed us along. Within a few minutes we found the museum. It was hard to miss, as it was the biggest and most architecturally modern building in the area. The museum was free, so we just walked in, picked up a map, and started our journey.

Mem at the waterfront

A big-ass rusty anchor

I've got the biggest balls of them all!

First we visited the natural history section, which contained fascinating exhibits on the geology of New Zealand, including a shaking house you could stand inside to simulate an earthquake. This section of the museum contained many fossils and taxidermy specimens of local fauna. The crowning jewel was the carcass of the largest colossal squid ever found, which was snagged by fishermen in the Ross Sea a decade ago. It was huge, but somehow not as large as I imaged (my imagination is prone to hyperbole).

Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni a.k.a The Kraken

She is 15 feet long and weighs 1091 pounds!

Next we went into the Gallipoli: The Scale of War exhibit, which contained giant and hauntingly lifelike sculptures of real people who had participated World War I. We marveled at the minute details such as glistening sweat and stubble. Adjacent to each sculpture was an informational section containing old weapons, medical supplies, military food rations, photos, letters, and models of life during wartime. They even had recreations of trenches that you could stand in while a soundtrack of falling bombs blared from speakers all around you. The haunting stories of veterans played out in their own voices. The exhibit was very moving and brought tears to my eyes several times.

Lieutenant Colonel Percival Fenwick, a doctor, kneels next to a dead soldier.

Close-up of Fenwick's face

A shell-shocked Sergeant Cecil Malthus wades through poppies.

Next we went to the fourth floor to check out the exhibit on the Maori and other Polynesian cultures in the region. Once we had explored that, we headed out onto the roof to look at the view of the harbor. Unfortunately, the glass surrounding the terrace was filthy and made for poor viewing. The wind whipped our clothing around madly until we'd had enough and went back inside. We had a little time to kill before our dinner plans so we sat in the fourth floor cafe and had tea, coffee, and quiche, and took the opportunity to rest our feet.

Rooftop view through dirty plexiglass

Dinner was approaching, so we left the museum, turning inland for a gently sloping uphill walk until we reached the Southern Cross restaurant. There we met my grad school colleagues, Shanna and Alex, who I hadn't seen since we all lived in Paris some five years ago. Since our last meeting they had married one another, moved to Wellington, and created a beautiful baby named Lïlah. The wee one was a bit shy when we first met, but I soon won her over with my cheek pop trick (see the Lollipop song for reference). She even let me hold her after dinner.

The restaurant specialized in stonegrill dishes, where they brought out your food raw and you cooked it to your liking on a hot slab of stone. It was a two-for-one deal for the stone dishes, and I was glad because I would have been peeved about having to cook my own food otherwise. Even so, the food was great, and it was so nice to catch up with old friends. They are a sweet family and it was beautiful to watch them interact.

After dinner, we walked a couple blocks to catch our bus. We got on one that we thought would be going our way. I tried to explain to the bus driver the general area we were headed and asked which stop would get us the closest (I knew the bus went almost to where we were going). Either he didn't understand or didn't want to bother with us further, because he told us to get off and wait for another bus that would take us directly there. That bus was not due for over an hour. Instead, we figured out which stop we actually needed, and took the next bus that appeared. It dropped us a short distance from our AirBnB, but unfortunately what lay between was completely uphill. We trudged along, panting, until we reached our destination. There we found Sally watching television and joined her. She was great fun to be around, witty and clever, and we tended to laugh a lot all together. I finished off my evening doing some writing on the couch next to the lovely cat Coco, who purred, kneaded, and then fell asleep.

We walked uphill from the stoplight just lower left of center.