Wellington

Kiwi Skeleton with egg, Te Papa Museum

Our morning started with a quick trip to the top of Mt. Victoria for a view of Wellington harbor. The wind was actually calm in the "city of winds" We were let loose in Te Papa, Wellington's famous museum. Mary and I start in the special Monet exhibit, mostly on loan from Boston's Fine Arts Museum. His use of different light on the same subject was amazing. The museum is broken into multiple sections on various subjects. We visited the section on the Waitangi treaty between the English and Maori. This is significantly affecting things to day as the Maori regain their property. Our next section was on the introduction of species to the islands, then the effect of volcanoes on the natural history of the island. I was shocked that the natural history portion was primarily models of animals, not the actual animals. Most interesting was the section on volcanoes with dramatic films and pictures showing the landscape changes in the last 100 years.


We spent most of the afternoon (4 hours) crossing the channel to the South Island. On arrival we went to a wine tasting at the Montana Winery, then a late dinner and bed.