North Island – last stop – Wellington

It’s amazing the changes in the topography as we travel south from Taupo to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. We started out with a threat for a rainy morning,

. . . which did materialize, and a winding drive through the hills.

The terrain changed as we entered Desert Road. At the beginning of Desert Road a crew was putting up an electric signboard to warn drivers that the road ahead could be slippery from snow and ice. Because it’s so hilly and/or mountainous on the island this sign is posted everywhere; and no where more appropriate than when we got to Desert Road.

As you can see the whole world changed to low desert scrub with a powder-sugar dusting of snow. We are still traveling on State Highway 1. This stretch of our drive was about 100 km or so and two lanes.

Then you come out to no snow and no trees, just rolling hills and more sheep.

And later back to trees as we were nearing the small town of Taihape, where we stopped off for lunch. It was pretty raw out, soup and a cup of hot tea hit the spot.

A promise of blue skies as we approached Wellington, or at least no rain.

The harbor view (below) from our hotel room -

We were just spending the night in Wellington and with the five-hour drive there was not a lot of time to explore Wellington.

The beige building on the right of the picture (below) is the Te Papa Tongarewa (an interactive museum and broadly translated as “the place of treasures of this land). We dumped our bags and headed out to the museum. Having only 1 1/2 hours before the museum’s closing time, we asked the gentleman at the desk what should we see within the time limit we had. He suggested starting on the fourth floor through the Maori exhibit, and then seeing whatever ever else time permitted.

Wooden trumpets, and a shell and carved mouthpiece trumpet

carvings:

Intricate carvings on the stern; carvings, paua shell inlay and feathers down the length, and the bow with carving (of a coxswain!?), (click on any photo to see the inside of the boat and other artifacts).

That was all the culture we could fit in; oh, of course, a quick run through the museum shop where, as I was picking up a small souvenier, I asked the cashier if she could point us in the direction of restaurants. So before they locked the doors on us we left to find dinner. The main drag was just a block or two parallel to the museum.

Dinner and a local beer at Sweet Mother’s Kitchen. The restaurant was crowded (which is why we picked it) and we opted to eat at the bar. It was fun as we got a chance to chat with the bartender. When it came time for dessert, the bartender and our waitress highly recommended the cupcakes. They had just finished taste testing one. The name of the restaurant was appropriate; we had strawberry cupcakes straight out of the oven for dessert. The food was good, but dessert was yummy.

We put in for a 3:45 am wake-up call! So it was an early night for us. If we were younger, MUCH younger, we would have just stayed up all night.