Wellington

Day 11:

Today we got to Wellington which is our first stop on the North Island and the capital city. It was warm at times, then wet and windy. We were moored in the commercial port about a kilometer and a half north of the city centre. There was a rather disorganised queue for some non-existent taxis, so we decided to ignore the advice we had been given and walk into town. This turned out to be a good move as we enjoyed the walk along the waterfront.

On the way we passed a large warehouse that advertised "the largest indoor rock climbing wall in New Zealand". Jack couldn't go past that, so in we went. It was quite impressive with lots of different climbs available. With Tim belaying from below, Jack scampered up several walls before his arms gave out. Since they sell an all-day pass, he agreed to move on and come back later.

We walked along the docks, looking at all the boats, including an enormous floating crane, built about a hundred years ago in Scotland and still operational.

Then we got to the Te Papa Museum. Te Papa means Our Place and it is an excellent museum with lots of interactive displays. Standing in a wooden hut while a fake earthquake shakes it around you is pretty freaky. There were lots of animal & bird displays as well as Maori and European artifacts. There was a fascinating display about the various animals and plants that people had introduced. The weirdest was the zebra, but they didn't survive. Since zebra are not even useful in their native land, it is a mystery why anyone wanted to bring them into New Zealand.

Interestingly, although there was a lot of information about the Maoris and a lot about the early European settlers, we found nothing about the Maori wars. Either we missed this (in which case it must have been an inconspicuous display), or it is not considered politically correct to discuss it.

After watching a movie about the decline in turtles, we are more than ever convinced that current methods of commercial fishing cannot continue and we have to convert to farmed fish.

We left the museum and walked back through the town, seeing the sights on the way back to the ship.

In the evening, we left port with the "technical challenge" still unsolved, but some expert had come aboard in Wellington and during the evening, fixed whatever was wrong and so we were back on two engines.