Post #161 - March 21, 2013 - Wellington, New Zealand

What we did: bus to Wellington, Te Papa Museum
Budget: NZ$150/$125; Spent: NZ$117/$98

• Woke up at 6am to pack and eat breakfast before our bus to Wellington, which was leaving at 8am
• We thought we might see the German girl again this morning because she had a bus as well for Auckland, but she must have left before we made it to the kitchen area
• We climbed aboard our bus and slept for a good two hours before our first stop around 11am; we grabbed a couple coffees and ate our sandwiches that we had prepared for ourselves this morning
• The rest of the bus we spent either sleeping, enjoying the view, or talking; it was a beautiful ride; at one point we were traveling through a ravine and the road was snaking along the side of it; it was amazing, but didn't last that long
• When we arrived in Wellington, we were dropped off at the train station, which required us taking a bus to our hostel; we found an information centre and he directed us to the bus no problem; about 20 minutes later we were at our hostel
• Our hostel is more like a hotel; it’s a tall building and right in downtown Wellington, which is a beautiful city; we were very happy with our choice of a hostel, even though it’s a little pricey, but everything is pricey here
• We decided we would check out the Te Papa Museum, which was close by, and headed there after we had put our stuff away in our room
• The walk was a short one, but it took us right to the port area of town, which is really nice
• We entered the museum, which is free, and one of the first things we saw were replicas of the cave trolls from the movie The Hobbit; we took some pictures, obviously
• Patty noticed an exhibit that interested her, and that was the history of the formation of the islands of New Zealand, so we went to check it out; there was some very neat stuff about the earth and about the plates of the earth, and volcanoes, earthquakes, and pretty much everything that has shaped our world over millions of years; there was even an earthquake simulator that we went into, but it wasn't overly exciting
• It seems that New Zealand has experienced several devastating earthquakes and tsunamis and volcanic eruptions in its day; some very cool stuff
• After the museum, we walked back to our hostel, stopping at the grocery store to pick up something for dinner
• We ended up making tuna salad with chickpeas and eating that with a baguette; it was a very nice meal
• The rest of the night we chatted and were on the internet