a day at the museum

Our final day together for the nine of us and Mike. We are headed to the waterfront this morning and the National Museum of New Zealand.  It has some of everything and something for everyone....

lots of public sculpture in Wellington - much of it moves driven by the near constant wind...

we arrive at the museum:

the extinct Moa and the extinct New Zealand eagle:

the world's largest insect? the Weta weighs the same a three field mice-

the elusive Kiwi

the scourge possum (LOL- he's kind of cute!)

the satellite view of the NZ includes both islands and the smaller island that is located at the south eastern tip of the south island- foot marks Milford Sound-

Maori things here as well as the Rotorua Museum but IMHO the Rotorua collection was superior

then some art work from local school kids:

some historical advertising/art

lots of post cards:

then we went for lunch before returning to visit some of the galleries of interest in depth- the art gallery was excellent but no photos allow- I thought it was the best floor of the museum.

yet another in the Ginger Beer Taste-off

 

this was a fun exhibit for we older folks- this was all new and exciting to us when we were younger adults:

then we saw an exhibit from the post war (WWII) era (it took place in an antique shop) where we recognized nothing LOL - it was very NZ-ish a "you had to be there" kind of thing...

nicely done just not relevant to American tourists- so we headed back to the hotel- and on the way ran into the Bob Barker ship-

they had me going until they got to this point in their appeal for donations:

OK - I can go with no meat - understand that- but seriously honey (which is basically bee-crap) and dairy (cow's are not killed for their milk) - that was bridge too far for me----

Later in the day (which we were supposed to have OFF) Mike has more plans for the group- and takes them over to Parliament for a tour- TB and Phil go but I have some business to take care of and need to print some documents and get them faxed back to the U.S. on a tight deadline so stay at the hotel.  For our farewell dinner we head to the General Practitioner and have a very very nice meal- which as TB has noted- included paper crowns from our Christmas Crackers (a NZ tradition as well as British one) 

We all say our good byes at dinner and exchange email addresses-  the group of six are departing for the U.S. on mid day flights via Auckland to the States....

after we get back from dinner we take over the empty bar with TB, Mike, PF and me and drink some bubbly flavored with strawberries (better than it sounded) and a couple of other drinks-

TB is off early in the AM to Q-town but we see Mike in the morning as we breakfast.  We grab an early lunch in a place across the street and then head to the Picton ferry.

As usual on a trip of this kind- we have bittersweet feelings about the end- lots of good memories but we have to part with Mike and the others and we have really enjoyed spending the time with our fellow travelers.

Alas we move on- wine country awaits!