A group of 11 of us (Me, Kelly, Cate, Kim, her friend Desi, Rich, Dana, James, Brian, Steph and Caitlin) decided to take advantage of the time between classes and finals to go on one last trip. As I mentioned, we didn’t get to see the northern part of the South Island, so we decided to combine that with a visit to Wellington as a last hoorah. It really was a great trip and now you get to hear all about it!
We had a shuttle pick all of us up on Thursday afternoon. We were split up between 2 flights, but since they were within a half hour of each other, we went to the airport together. Once we landed in Wellington and got our luggage, we took a shuttle to our hostel and then headed out in search of food. We wound up getting pizza and then just hung out in the hostel for the night. There was a pool competition downstairs and we all entered it just for fun. It wasn’t like a normal game of pool, everyone took turns taking a shot and you had 3 strikes before being eliminated. It was tricky though, because in each round you had to shoot a specific way, like behind your back, with your opposite hand, or only holding the cue in one hand. The funniest one was spinning around 10 times before you had to shoot. I’m terrible at pool, but actually stayed in the competition pretty long because I make the crazy ones like the one-handed one and the spinning one! (I missed the plain old normal one though!)
We had a shuttle pick all of us up on Thursday afternoon. We were split up between 2 flights, but since they were within a half hour of each other, we went to the airport together. Once we landed in Wellington and got our luggage, we took a shuttle to our hostel and then headed out in search of food. We wound up getting pizza and then just hung out in the hostel for the night. There was a pool competition downstairs and we all entered it just for fun. It wasn’t like a normal game of pool, everyone took turns taking a shot and you had 3 strikes before being eliminated. It was tricky though, because in each round you had to shoot a specific way, like behind your back, with your opposite hand, or only holding the cue in one hand. The funniest one was spinning around 10 times before you had to shoot. I’m terrible at pool, but actually stayed in the competition pretty long because I make the crazy ones like the one-handed one and the spinning one! (I missed the plain old normal one though!)
The next morning we got up to go explore the city of Wellington. We were staying right in the city center and just walked to a café to get some breakfast. Then, we went to Te Papa (supposedly New Zealand’s best museum), where we spent a few hours exploring. It was a great museum and we all really enjoyed it. There were a lot of interactive exhibits which was cool. Here's a video of us playing on this music thing. Basically you got to pick a song, and then each of the different circles controls a different part of the song (like a different voice or instrument). If you hold your hand over the circle it will light up and that part will play. So we all picked a different circle and were playing around with it!
For lunch, we went to Wholly Bagels, which was the first bagel I had in New Zealand. It was very yummy! We then took a walk along the water, which was a very pretty walk. We took a cool picture jumping off of these balls we found.
Then, we played on a playground for bit, where there was a really long slide. 
And we went on the swings too, while we were at it!
We walked to the Beehive, which is the Executive Wing of the Parliament building. 
We took a tour of Parliament, which was pretty interesting to see inside. 
We saw the rooms where different councils and hearings are held. Our tour guide was an odd man, but it was still an interesting experience. After the tour, we went across the street to check out the pub where Members of Parliament supposedly frequent. We didn’t see anyone, but there were interesting statues including one of Helen Clarke, the Prime Minister.Next, we walked to take a cable car ride up to the Botanical Gardens. Wellington is REALLY hilly, so this was a streetcar type cable car (not a gondola type) that was designed to eliminate what would otherwise be a very steep climb. We had a great view from the top and the sun was starting to set so it looked really pretty!
We walked around the gardens for a little bit, but it was starting to get dark and we didn’t really have much time. So we decided to continue with what appeared to be the theme of the day and play on the playground. This was actually a very nice playground, with a zipline, double slides, a seesaw and a tire merry-go-round type thing. Apparently, we can be entertained quite easily!We showered and got ready back at the hostel and then headed out to get some dinner. We went to Abrakebabra to get, of course, kebabs. I know I said that the one in Mt Eden was good, but this one was up there as well. We got gelato on the walk back which was delicious! (I got chocolate and cinnamon, and the cinnamon one was especially good.) Next, we went bowling! This was the classiest bowling alley I have ever seen. I didn’t bring my camera with me, but it was called a “bowling lounge” and had nice lanes, and a nice bar and some sit down tables. When you first walk in, you could be walking into a restaurant or a classy bar or something – you don’t even see the lanes at first. Bowling was fun and I even got one strike! Afterwards, we checked out a couple of the bars in town, but we had to be up really early the next day, so we didn’t stay out too late.
Since there were 11 of us traveling together, but the rooms at this hostel slept 6 people, my room had 5 of us and one empty bed – for the first night at least! When we got back on the second night, there was a 40-something year old man with a big hairy back sleeping in the bunk above Kim. A bit of an uncomfortable situation to say the least!
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