Wellington - New Zealand
8/25/05
Always on the move, we had another early morning. A taxi picked us up at 6 .a.m. to go to the airport; the sunrise was at 7:30 a.m. and our take off was scheduled to happen at 7:00 a.m. We checked-in in a little house from the mail service and waited to board. There were no stupid questions (like: who packed your stuff?) or x-ray; when it was the time, we just walked to the plane. :)
It was our first experience flying in a such tiny airplane. The whole thing is quite scary because it shakes A LOT.. The views were astonishing though, leaving the south island we could see the mountains just minutes before sunrise, the colors were so beautiful.
Right in between the two islands there was a huge cloud which we flew into, and it was a weird feeling because the tiny plane doesn't fly that fast, for a while we stayed in the plane that seemed to be stationary in the middle of the void, because outside is 'pitch-white' in any direction, there was no sensation of movement.
When we were approaching the north island we had a glimpse of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, from the top.
From the airport, we took a bus to the center and around 8:30 we already had a place to stay; by ferry we would maybe had wasted the whole day traveling.
Then we went to the national landmark museum Te Papa. Wellington is set geographically in a critical place, at the very meeting point or two tectonic plates, so they are quite worried about earthquakes. One of the attractions of the museum won awards on the subject, it is called Forces of Nature and not only gives an excellent idea of how earthquakes happen but also explain how New Zealand islands were formed; there is even an earthquake simulator, and it is all free.
The section about Maori Culture is also good, it doesn't concentrate only on New Zealand, it covers all Pacific Islands tribes and how they interact. There are lots of material about their habits, beliefs and religion. The museum is really nice, it has an Art section on the top of the building which is an area surrounded by painted glass with some little windows where you can spy the city.
We had a nice time in the museum but it didn't take the whole day, in the afternoon we walked through the Cable Street and then the quarters of Willis, Lambton, Cuba and Courtenay.
When we came across an ad for a cheap car rental I convinced Angie we should take it. Although she wanted to hitchhike, there was a lot to see in the north island and we had only one week left for New Zealand. So we called and scheduled to take the car next morning.
Always on the move, we had another early morning. A taxi picked us up at 6 .a.m. to go to the airport; the sunrise was at 7:30 a.m. and our take off was scheduled to happen at 7:00 a.m. We checked-in in a little house from the mail service and waited to board. There were no stupid questions (like: who packed your stuff?) or x-ray; when it was the time, we just walked to the plane. :)
It was our first experience flying in a such tiny airplane. The whole thing is quite scary because it shakes A LOT.. The views were astonishing though, leaving the south island we could see the mountains just minutes before sunrise, the colors were so beautiful.
Right in between the two islands there was a huge cloud which we flew into, and it was a weird feeling because the tiny plane doesn't fly that fast, for a while we stayed in the plane that seemed to be stationary in the middle of the void, because outside is 'pitch-white' in any direction, there was no sensation of movement.
When we were approaching the north island we had a glimpse of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, from the top.
From the airport, we took a bus to the center and around 8:30 we already had a place to stay; by ferry we would maybe had wasted the whole day traveling.
Then we went to the national landmark museum Te Papa. Wellington is set geographically in a critical place, at the very meeting point or two tectonic plates, so they are quite worried about earthquakes. One of the attractions of the museum won awards on the subject, it is called Forces of Nature and not only gives an excellent idea of how earthquakes happen but also explain how New Zealand islands were formed; there is even an earthquake simulator, and it is all free.
The section about Maori Culture is also good, it doesn't concentrate only on New Zealand, it covers all Pacific Islands tribes and how they interact. There are lots of material about their habits, beliefs and religion. The museum is really nice, it has an Art section on the top of the building which is an area surrounded by painted glass with some little windows where you can spy the city.
We had a nice time in the museum but it didn't take the whole day, in the afternoon we walked through the Cable Street and then the quarters of Willis, Lambton, Cuba and Courtenay.
When we came across an ad for a cheap car rental I convinced Angie we should take it. Although she wanted to hitchhike, there was a lot to see in the north island and we had only one week left for New Zealand. So we called and scheduled to take the car next morning.
posted by Adriano and Angie | 5:31 PM
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