Well, Well, Well

I finally made it into Wellington! The capital of New Zealand, and NZ hometown of Ben and Erin. So, of course I thought of them during my entire visit!

Wellington harbor as I sipped my coffee, mmmmm

Welly harbor from the museum patio

First stop, besides coffee, was Te Papa museum and it was awesome.

Kickass trolls welcome you into the museum. Courtesy of Weta, from the Hobbit

They had a mixture of natural science and history. It's in a beautiful building.

Whale skeleton. That is one giant carcass!

 And admission is free $)+<....... That's a stick figure self portrait, me with cheapskate dollar signs for my eyes.

So good to know I was living on a ticking time bomb 

The museum was fantastic.

I no longer expect dinosaurs at all my museums.
I demand them!
DINOSAUR TRACKS!

NZ possum. Told you they were cute!
The one I shot was in the EXACT same position...hmmmmm

I still had the whole day ahead of me, and I proceeded to make my way through downtown. Checking out the sights and taking care of a few errands too.
I saw the Parliament building.

Yup.
It looks like a beehive.
Erin worked across from parliament in the bank reserve, which I also moseyed by.

And I checked out a few galleries. I'm not much inclined towards modern art, (I could only watch a video of some dude in Asia putting a bubble machine on a bus tailpipe for like 31.5 seconds. Does that sound ridiculous to anyone else?!). But there was one exhibition called Kaleidoscope by artist Len Lye.
I. Loved. It.
I think I spent over an hour of my life watching a few pieces of metal and plastic gyrate..... and it was time well spent! To each their own, dude.
I went to Cuba street and people watched and had some grub n beer at a place called JJ Murphy's.
So, on an aside, I asked the knowledgable Erin what to see and do in Welly. She sent me an extensively badass list. I wish I could've gotten a personal tour from the Williams...but Erin sent me the next best thing. But unfortunately, I didn't have access to it my first few hours in Welly!
But guess what?! JJ Murphy's, the Irish pub on Cuba St was on it. Of all the bars, in all the city.... What's my point, you ask?
Great minds drink alike.
That's what.

People watching from JJ Murphy's patio on Cuba St

Wellington is definitely one of the best cities I've been too.
It's bustling, but not crowded.
It has so much crammed into it, with most of it consolidated onto a few streets. But the cool thing about it, is if you wander off the main drags, there are all these other random, neat little places.

It has tons of character without the really "bad" neighborhoods that I'm used to coming across in the city.
There's so many parks. And the half the town has hills on the outskirts while the rest faces the harbor.

Part of the harbor, surrounded by lawns and pubs

It was very picturesque.
I visited the botanical gardens. I walked up and around the hill, to the observatory, cable car museum

Turns out , I'm a total museum nerd. It's not just aquariums, baby

and then down through the rose gardens.

The peace flame. To commemorate the nuclear deaths of WWII. I don't think the flame is visible during the day. I suspect it resides in the mini pagoda

Rose garden

Then onto the Weta Cave.
The Weta Cave is the public tour/visitor center for Weta FX studios.
I am Laurel's adrenal gland.
I release the hormone adrenalin into her system. I am why she's wet-her-pants excited.

Bilbo's prosthetic feet and legs

Turns out the Weta Cave is mostly a tourist trap. The admission is free, for a reason!, it's a gift shop with a smattering of memorabilia from the movies.

Meet the Feebles puppets
They were smaller than I expected.
Took me back to the day, when disgusting cult films were the best movies ev-ar

The Rat Zombie from Dead Alive (Brain Dead in NZ) my first introduction to Peter Jackson and Weta

I still enjoyed it. The place was TINY, but luckily there was a cool 20 minute movie that shows some behind the scenes stuff.

Little District 9 dude. Great movie.

I was still glad I had gone. It was totally worth it. There was also a $20 tour that you could purchase and view a bunch of movie props and stuff.

I luff Gollum! He's so cute!

 I shoulda done it. But I was feeling a little letdown and cranky. Not quite as much as this dude...

Oh! hello nightmares, I don't remember inviting you to the slumber party. That's ...cool......

"I ORDERED DECAF!!!!!!"

I also didn't walk up Mt Vic while I was here.
The nice thing, I keep reminding myself, is that I have to pass back this way again. So things I missed that I wanted to see in the North Island...well, I still have plenty of opportunity the second time around.
Tomorrow, I'm onto the Bluebridge ferry to spend the next 4+ months on the South Island.
Ungh!