Exploring Te Papa

Kia Ora!

With the rain blowing in every direction, we set out to Te Papa museum, which is located down by the harbour at the end of Cable Street. No pictures really looked striking from this walk, as all turned out in about 15 shades of gray. This would represent what it looked like outside but you can turn to an all static tv channel and get the same effect.

Te Papa is Maori and is translated as "Our Place". It is evidently not without controversy because keeping treasures by the sea on an active fault line is not looked upon favorably by many. Oh well.....I learned that there is far too much seismic activity here than what I wanted to know about. Many quakes are felt (around the scale of 4) but no one seems too stressed by this information.

I found the children's exhibits to be the most fun. Lots of kids doing experiments and such. The adult section had a good deal of information on the history of NZ and the Maori people. The video snippets depicting the lives of many different people and how they connect with the land were really amazing and the most striking thing for me.

After this we walked a bit away from downtown and found ourselves in an area with many car dealerships. We were looking for the Tattoo Museum (which we never found) but stopped for fish and chips. Very fresh and delicious, but not something you should eat every day. Since we didn't need to buy a car or help construction workers, we wandered back to downtown and bought shoes.....Yes, shopping is king here. On the retail subject, there are more restaurants per capita here than New York City....Isn't that amazing?

We looked into domestic flights here to the South Island, which we plan to see in early December. Back on a plane? Are we crazy? The thought of a long train ride is even worse, so plane it is.....