23 May WELLINGTON

Woke up at 7:15 am, feeling fresh and kicking after a good night sleep.  Thanks to the comfortable bed and high thread counts sheet and quilt in Ibis Hotel. We got a very good deal (NZ$ 105) for a king size room from Agoda's website. 

Since the hotel is situated in the heart of Wellington city, we can almost walk to most of the famous attractions like Te Papa Museum, Botanic Garden, Bee Hive Parliament Building, and many shopping and eatery outlets.  After breakfast, we started our Wellington exploration by walking to Te Papa Museum along Queens Wharf.  It was a nice stroll.  The sky was cloudy and this was a day that I did not need to use my sun glasses when staying outdoor, a totally different experience from the days when we were in South Island, where the sun was notoriously aggressive. The outdoor temperature was just nice, 11 degree Celsius.  But like what every body knows, Wellington is always windy, making you feeling chilly when the wind blows.

Cloudy.
Modern art - Fruits Of The Garden.

We reached Te Papa at 9:45am , 15 minutes earlier than its opening hour.  So, more photo opportunities at the entrance of this world renowned museum.

What I could say about Te Papa is I LOVE this museum very much.  It is an inspiring museum telling us about the relation between New Zealand and mother earth.  Facts and history is explained in a lively and entertaining manner, of which even the most ordinary people can easily understand.  The exhibitions are interdisciplinary and interactive. Almost all the displays are presented with the support of 3D and touch screen technology.  The visitors are given the chance to participate in many case simulations such as earth quake, volcanic explosions, flood and many more. This is what I call making history and science innovative and fun. Kids should come here more often so the parents can save a lot of effort to answer all kinds of HOW and WHY questions.  I wish I could spend 3 to 4 days here just to go through every single display.  Also, most importantly the admission is FREE.  It was really impressive that being the youngest country on the planet, New Zealand owns such a world class museum.  Bravo for their great effort!

We also witnessed the exhibition of colossal squid, which was the world's largest squid at the weight of 495 kg.  It was preserved in a giant tank and being displayed in front of our very eyes.

Giant colossal squid, scary, huh?

By 1pm, we reluctantly left the Te Papa as our feet were getting very tired already.  We strolled to Reading Cinema's Food Court, which was not too far from the museum.  The 'All You Can Eat" signage at one of the Chinese stall instantly caught our eyes.  Well, the fun of stacking your own food based on the size of the plate of your choice is here! We paid NZ$10.50 for a medium plate and stacked as much food as we could eat (see, we are mature adult that would not stack as much food as we could, instead we stacked as much food as we think we could finish).  It was a satisfying lunch although the food did not taste superb. It was the fun that mattered!

Bernard's stack, inspired by jelly fish?
My petite stack

With a happy and full stomach, we decided to explore the Royal Botanic Garden next. The cable car that sent us up to the peak of the garden, which is built on a steep slope costed us NZ$3 one way.  The journey only took 3 minutes but since this was our first trip, we did not know about this.  The cable car stopped at one point after about 2 minutes to pick up and dropped off some passengers. We were happy to grab for empty seats when it stopped 2nd time, where more people got off from it.  Finally, everyone got off except us.  Only then we realized that we have reached our destination :)

Old fashion looking but airy and high speed cable car

The botanic garden is not as impressive as those we have seen in Christchurch and Queenstown.  There is no wide span of green like we normally see in conventional gardens as this particular garden is built on a slope.  But I think this makes it a good calorie burning point for joggers and hikers.

 



Flower or Leaf?
A living 'doll' rolling on the grass.

After an hour in the garden, we walked down the hill, heading back to the city.  Bee Hive Parliament Building was not too far away from the foot of the garden, so we managed to took some pictures of it.  Since it was a laid back Saturday, we did not bumped into the Prime Minister :)

 

By 5:30 pm, the sun started to go down and the sky started to turn dark.  We walked back to our hotel to take a rest.

At 7pm, I was still felling full after the All You Can Stack buffet lunch. However, knowing that if I did not eat something by then, all the shops would be closed very soon and most probably I have to take my dinner in a night club when I felt hungry later. We chose to eat in a Taiwanese Tea House that seemed packed of people.  We were assigned a little table near to the kitchen.  Anyway the food turned up to be very delicious.  That was one of the best Sze Chuan soup that I have ever tasted. Bernard's beef fried rice was tasty too.  After finishing our thirst quenching bubble tea, it was another long walk back to our hotel. 

Wellington obviously has more homeless people and smokers compared to South Island.  But this is a city that is far more convenient in terms of F&B, clothing and business opportunity.  Same theory as in life, there is always give and take!

Have to sleep soon, catching a flight at 10 am tomorrow to Auckland, our last stop in New Zealand.

23 May 2010

10:30 pm

Room 510, Ibis Wellington