June 5, 2011
The last few days have been completely amazing! Mostly because of the wonderful people I’ve met. On our day traveling to Wellington Matthias really took me under his wing. We were able to get a shuttle to the ferry terminal from the hostel. After we checked in Matthias saw one of his friends who had been on the Stray bus earlier with him. As it turns out his friend, Mike, was also on the bus with me my first couple days back on the bus.
Matthias and I had been hemming and hawing about where to stay in Wellington and Mike reminded us that it is a holiday weekend for the Queen’s birthday so we’d better get it taken care of or we’d find no beds. Matthias called Downtown Backpackers, where Mike was also booked to stay. He asked for two beds in a hostel room and they said they were full on Saturday and Sunday, but could get us two beds for this night. We took them and decided we’d figure the other two nights out when we got into Wellington. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing, but I tried to trust God and I prayed about it.
The ferry ride over was pretty neat and it was cool to get to know Mike better. The three of us walked the decks together and enjoyed the scenery. We rode through Cook Strait which is one of the worst crossings in the world. It can be very rough. The ferry isn’t like the small ferries we use in the Puget Sound region. It’s more like a large ship that takes passengers and vehicles. The crossing takes three hours.
Mike suggested that we do a communal meal for dinner when we got to our hostel in Wellington. We all agreed that would be good and we spent the rest of the crossing watching Disney movies that the ferry plays on several TV screens.
In Wellington our hostel is located right across the street from the ferry terminal. We walked over and checked in and when I checked in I asked if they had any beds for Saturday and Sunday night. Lo and behold they did! I don’t know who talked to Matthias over the phone, but they had plenty of space in a bigger dorm room. So our first night we were to stay in a six bed dorm room and then move our things the next morning to the larger dorm room. I was so relieved!
Matthias and I took our things to our room and met a very nice Belgian girl named Nathalie. We invited her to join us for our shared meal and then Mike, Matthias, and I went to the supermarket to get the ingredients. Our dinner came to $4 per person! Talk about cheap! Mike insisted on cooking the meal on his own as long as the rest of us cleaned up afterwards. He made us a lovely spaghetti Bolognese. By the time we ate it was almost 10 PM so I just went to bed.
The next day Matthias and I had the annoying job of moving dorms. All in all it worked out, but there was a bit of confusion. Eventually, Matthias, Mike, and I headed to the New Zealand National Museum called Te Papa.
Te Papa is a beautiful, modern, and very large museum on the waterfront of Wellington. Wellington feels a lot like San Francisco because it has beautiful waterfront areas, large buildings, and a ton of cafes, bars, and restaurants. The three of us started out in a new exhibit all about the Maori people reclaiming their heritage. That took us an hour so we stopped for a lunch break at the museum cafe.
We ate our sandwiches outside and enjoyed our coffee and one another’s company. Mike is from England and Matthias is from Germany. Mike talks a lot. He hardly every shuts up! Although Matthias is a good talker too. We laughed a bunch and again discussed what we’d do for dinner! Food is always on our minds!
Back in the museum we visited the permanent exhibits on the Maori people and history. In the Treaty of Waitangi section I started to lose interest, but Mike, who is a political science student couldn’t get enough! Fortunately there was a sitting area with a good view of the harbor and Matthias and I just sat there and relaxed for a bit. I also checked out the section on New Zealand in the 20th century. I learned a lot about New Zealand’s stance against nuclear weapons. I’d heard people talk about it before, but it was great to really learn about it.
I tried to do the exhibit on immigrants to New Zealand because it looked really good, but by that time my brain couldn’t take in any more! I was reading, but not comprehending. Looking but not seeing. I went and found Mike and told him I couldn’t stay any longer. We eventually found Matthias, but couldn’t leave just yet because the two of them wanted to go see the colossal squid.
Te Papa is famous for having a colossal squid, as it’s the only museum in the world to have one. It’s just a giant squid in a display case. In 2007 some fishermen from New Zealand were fishing near Antarctica when they caught a fish that the squid was in the midst of eating. For some reason the squid didn’t let go. And since it was about to die anyway the fishermen took it onboard and gave it to the museum.
By this point I was so tired I could barely stand up straight. But Matthias and Mike were having fun on a computer where you could design your own squid so I had to wait a bit longer. Finally we left and went to the supermarket to get food for dinner. We chose to make stir fry.
Nathalie joined us for dinner again. Mike and Matthias cooked it up and it was really good. It’s so much fun to share a meal with friends. It’s fascinating to sit at a table with people from all around the world. We represented the UK, the USA, Belgium, and Germany. Topics and discussions are very different when it’s an international group like that! Nathalie and I cleaned up and then the four of us had some wine and biscuits. We decided to go to the movies and I’d found a coupon for $10 movie tickets.
We went to see the new X-men movie and Mike was in heaven because he’s a nerd. We all had such a great time together! I loved it too! These three are just about the best fellow backpackers I’ve met in New Zealand. I’m going to be sad to say goodbye to them!
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