Wellington was absolutely amazing for the amount of time that we spent there. We got in on Saturday night and went straight to Anisha’s house. We were immediately met with butter chicken that her mom made which was amazing! It was so nice to spend some time in a real house with real, delicious home cooked food. Her house is a typical house in a suburban neighborhood. One difference between U.S. houses and Kiwi houses is that they have a separate room the size of a closet for just a toilet, and the sink and shower and other bathroom stuff would be in a separate room. Saturday night we met other friends from International House that happened to be in Wellington for the night and had a great night out on the town exploring the local nightlife. Fashion in Wellington is quite interesting because people dress up moreso than they do in Auckland, and they’re still not afraid to wear anything at all. It was so much fun but we didn’t get back until 5 am! Anisha got pretty sick so it was a good thing that Dave was sober driver for the evening with the hippie van.
Driving around in the hippy van is actually really growing on me! I love that we have it because it has so much character and we keep getting compliments on it. So early on Sunday I went out and picked up Njeri from the airport and then we went back to Anisha’s for lunch of avocado and chicken sandwiches. Then, Olly came over and took us to Te Papa, which is the national museum of New Zealand!! It’s so cool because they have exhibits about New Zealand, volcanoes, earthquakes, Maori People, different whale skeletons, stuffed versions of a lot of New Zealand animals, and my favorite part… a giant squid! It’s SO amazing to see a huge giant squid embalmed in a tank because they’re so rare. The museum is 7 floors high and definitely worth stopping at. Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand, and in my opinion more like Boston whereas Auckland is more like New York. Smaller cities like Wellington ten to have more character than larger cities in my opinion. I can’t wait to put up pictures of the museum!
After that we went to Mac’s Brewery to try a local beverage. They make really good beer (but I wouldn’t know, I don’t really like beer) so all of us girls got pear cider while the boys tasted the beer. It was SO good, I’d definitely try it again if I saw it on the menu. It’s so relaxing to be here in New Zealand where you just go out with your friends and have a good time.
Later, I went out with Anisha, Olly, Dave, Flora, and Njeri to Scopa, which is a really nice pizza and pasta place, where I had delicious pizza with prosciutto, olive, artichoke, egg (Strange, I know), and red onion. Very delicious!! Then, last night Dave and I left to go north at about 11 pm. Crazy, I know, but we ended up driving through the night (I drove about 7+ hours, Dave about 4) from Wellington to get to Auckland! The longest I’ve ever driven and even as I write this I haven’t had a nap! It was really cool because the moon was full and we drove over a mountain and on a desert road, where there’s no trees for a really long time, just scrubby grass.
Today we took the time to rent tanks, do laundry, shower, and get my computer checked out by a computer guy. Turns out, my computer circuit got fried because apparently NZ power fluctuates quite a bit and the spikes can harm a computer. I had a mini meltdown and got really upset that I wouldn’t be able to contact anyone from home- you have no idea how lonely it would feel to be on the other side of the world and without a way to contact people from home without having to either be in a computer lab (where you can’t talk freely) or borrow other people’s computers. So, today I got a surge suppressor and a new laptop. I need a computer for homework, entertainment in my room (i.e. music and watching shows), to skype with family and friends, and in order to keep track of all of the pictures I take during this trip. Apparently at some point I’ll get a cord to connect my old hard drive to my new computer to get all of those files off of it but I’m not sure when that will be.
Then, Dave and I got kebabs (Turkish cooked meat in a pita sort of a thing with veggies) and now we’re driving up to Whangarei, where we’ll stay the night and then go dive the Poor Knights Islands in the morning!! SO excited!
I know I also haven’t been able to post a single picture from this trip but all of the earlier ones are on my old hard drive and I haven’t uploaded any from my camera in a while. I think that when I get home, like next week, I’ll upload a TON and you can see all of my trip at once!
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