Tuesday in Wellington

We slept in and walked downtown scouting for breakfast. We spied a diner called Sweet Mother’s and I was pretty sure this was it. This place would best be described as Naked Lounge meets Duffy’s in New Orleans. The baristas, the coffee, and oddly the bathroom were straight out of Naked Lounge. The full bar, the paper money tacked to the wall, and the variety of kitsch on the wall was Duffyesque. They had a New Orleans themed menu and décor. Andy had the breakfast po’ boy with Cajun sausage. I had eggs and bacon on a cheese scone. I was really hoping we’d find ourselves back there later in the day so I could have a slice of the pumpkin pie or the beignets, but sadly that never happened.

There was plenty to do in Wellington, but our first priority for the day was the Te Papa Museum. This free museum is right on the harbor and the building is constructed in a way that the water comes into and around the building in aesthetic ways. There were sculptures above the building and below it.

(And it was soooo windy!)

We were able to see more Maori history and it had both a modern and a traditional Marae. We saw more of the Charles Goldie paintings of the Maori.

Modern marae and presentation space

They also had an interesting exhibit about the moving earth. It described how the rising sea would cover parts of New Zealand, how the tectonic plates are moving over time, and you could stand in a room and experience a simulated earth quake.

One section had a lot of interactive activities. There was a wall asking feedback about the purpose of art and the goals of the museum. One question asked what visitors thought about the permanence of art and should artifacts be kept from viewing in order to preserve them. They asked what type of art visitors collected. You could put your answers on a post it and put it up on the wall. Other places you could do magnet poetry or write a letter to a loved one telling them what you would say to them on your last walk together.  I love those kinds of things and contributed to many of them. We ended our visit with a snack in the museum café. I had popcorn and an L&P, a “lemonish drink” that is “world famous in New Zealand.”

The guidebook says that Te Papa is affectionately called “Our Place” because it celebrates the essence of New Zealand and its people. We thought it would be an “hour place” but we ended up being there 4 hours (pun courtesy of Andy).

At that point it was too late to go to some other places we were interested in, so we just walked the harbor and appreciated the public art and the people who were milling about. 

There were a number of plaques along the boardwalk. Andy is a big plaque reader, so we learned about the ships who brought immigrants from Poland and Greece around the time of World War II. The views of the city were fantastic despite the cloudy day.