Nun of That Nunsense

There is something about a nun riding a segway that arouses ones curiosity, and that is exactly what happened with me. The City and Sea Museum here in Wellington used the painting of a nun on a segway to advertise their current special exhibit. When we left Rotorua, the taxi driver told us to make sure we went to the 3rd floor video presentation at The City and Sea Museum, but would not tell us more than it would surprise and entertain us. This really made me curious, so we had to go. It sits on the waterfront; we walked there, a considerable distance, but the best way to view the city when you are not familiar with the transportation system.

As one enters this museum, there is a display of 100 years, each year providing an achievement in the city’s history. Some were memorable by tourist standards, while others were local knowledge/interest only. Either way, one hundred exhibits to get through it is tiring regardless. By fifty, we skipped out and moved on to the temporary exhibit with the art work. There was an explanation of each piece is a special booklet. I took it along and read each piece as I viewed the fifty plus pieces individually. It was the nun on the segway that intrigued me most. Perhaps it is because they have segway tours in Budapest and I have been invited to try it, but have yet to do so. They do look like fun.

As the name of the museum intimates, it is about the city and the sea around it. Not being a person interested in sea culture, most of it was zip past through without paying much attention. There was a documentary movie on a ferry that never made it from the north to south island, which we did watch intently. We were taking that ferry crossing ourselves. Finally, when I  had had enough, we went to the top floor to see this video we had been advised not to miss. It was worth the efforts. Using holograms, they did a presentation of a Maori mythological story that lasted for 9 minutes. It was quite well done and highly entertaining as well as educational. Strangely, there were only adults in the audience, but this is not a museum one would think to bring children to.

Outside there was a shiny red helicopter ready to give rides. My fantasy for decades has been to take a helicopter ride. As fearful as I am of heights, there is something about a helicopter that gives me chills in a positive way. This is on my bucket list for before I die, but it was not to be today.

We still had a number of things to do, the next being the Botanical Gardens. To reach it, we took the Wellington cable car, a major tourist attraction. However, after living near San Francisco and now living in Budapest, this is not such a thrill. What they call a cable car, I would call a funicular or a cogwheel system. It was fun, more so because of the excitement of others than the ride itself. Once at the top, we were loose in the botanical gardens to do as we pleased. It is a public garden with no closing hours, so we could stay as long as we chose. Up and down like San Francisco hills we walked looking at flowers, trees and beautifully appointed gardens. Being a holiday, many of the buildings within the gardens either closed early or where closed for the day.

Leaving the gardens, Ron wanted to see the bee hive. This is actually a parliamentary building, but it strongly resembles a bee hive. As we walked, it was apparent that this was a holiday. Strangely, most places received holidays for both Monday and Tuesday after Christmas because both Christmas and Boxing day landed on weekend days. Now with New Years they are closing early for the eve and will be closed for the day itself. It is yet to be seen if they will close for the following Monday to make up for losing a weekend holiday or not.

Like moths to a flame, we returned to Cuba Street for a beer at the Hotel Bristol. We debated having dinner there, but we enjoyed the food at the Asian place last night and it was so cheap, we decided to return there again. We were not disappointed. Dinner again was excellent.

Just out of curiosity, when we stopped for something to go without our after dinner tea, we asked how much cigarettes were selling for here. We were told they are $NZ 14.90 a pack, one box. OH MY GODS IN THE UNIVERSE. How do these young people afford it????

Was New Year’s Eve in Wellington fabulous? Don’t ask me. We were asleep by 11pm. Early morning tomorrow. If you find out it was exciting, don’t tell me about it. I hate missing out on things.

Related articles

• Lessons from Botanic Gardens and a Rain Forest (lonelyplanet.tv)

Pin It Now!

Deco for Days

After one night in this hostel, I am not as impressed as I was with the one in Rotorua. We do not have an ensuite room, because they don’t have them. Our room is off of one corridor after climbing 4 steps to our door. The 2 bathrooms around the corner from our room seem to be available when needed, but the problem is ventilation. It is much warmer here in Napier than it was in either Auckland or Rotorua. We have one small window that only opens outward about 3 inches due to a security bar that holds it from venturing further. It is hot and stuffy in here, but worse yet, the minimal air from the window and the wind in the hallway combine forces to make a game out of rattling our door…all night long. Barricading the door to keep it steady has not helped in the least.

Without the benefit of shopping yesterday upon arrival, we were obligated to find a place for coffee and a bite. Being what seems to be perpetual holidays here, most places were still closed, though we were up and out at 8am. We did find a little bakery/coffee shop called The Glory Hole. What a name. They made a delicious latte coffee and the ginger bar I had was a real treat. The first thing on our “To Do” list was to get to the grocery store. We gathered the things we needed to make our way through the next few dinners and breakfasts, before we move on yet again. The one refrigerator counter that really made me laugh out loud and caused me to photograph was the cold section of pet food. There amongst all of the other cold storage foods was a large display case of pet foods. I had to take pictures of it. I have never seen anything like this before.

After dropping off the goods at the hostel, we were going to make our way to the tourism office. The goal was to book a wine tour for tomorrow, but as we wandered, we came across a modern interesting looking white, white church. It was St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, so we wandered in to take a peek. Inside is shaped like the inside of a shell, an ultra modern construction for a Catholic church; it looked more like an amphitheater. Pews were arranged in a semi-circular fashion with the altar looking like a stage. For those of you familiar with Catholic confessionals, the Conciliatory room as they refer to it was a well proportioned room partially divided by varied lengths of wood from Tasmania. On either side, there were comfortable chairs. It gave me a chuckle that above the door was a sign “Emergency Exit”. In case of emergency, confess and escape. Some service had just ended when we entered, so one of the church members caught Ron, giving him an interesting history of the church and the rebuilding of the church. This church and its properties had multiple fires, most assumed were set by arson.    

As we walked out of the church, this car pulled up beside us and the woman passenger waved to us. It turned out to be out dinner companions at the Maori cultural show from Rotorua. After that dinner, we ran into them on Christmas day at St. Faith’s and now again in Napier. What a coincidence.

Napier is also known as the “Art Deco City of the World”. Almost the entire town was destroyed in an earthquake, so when it was time to rebuild the Deco architecture phase was in full swing. The local architects took their inspiration from what was happening in the US and Europe applying it here. Focusing again on that wine tour for tomorrow, we made it to the tourism office where for NZ$ 7.50, you can buy a self-guided tour of the downtown area that starts at the Deco Center, a historical memorial center and gift shop selling all things deco. We bought the booklet tried booking the wine tour. The problem was that the tour operator we wanted was not answering his phone. The tourism agent left a message, so we had to return to see if he responded. She believed that he may be booked up with a cruise ship that was coming into port in the morning. If this were the case, there would not be any other tours given.

With the booklet in hand, we started our Deco walking tour where it states it will take 60 to 100 minutes depending on your pace. For each address on given streets, there was a brief history of the architectural style, meaning the motif of the Deco style chosen and the year it was rebuilt. Very few incorporated Maori devises into the patterns for external décor. By the end of 2 hours of doing this walking tour, we needed to treat ourselves with a gelato that the bus driver had recommended. He was right, it was excellent. We wrapped up our tour after this refreshment, check. I am not a fan of Deco interior decorations in the least, but the architecture I find somewhat interesting. When I post the photos of Napier, for today a fare share of the shots will be of architecture.     

By the early evening we made out third trip to the tourism office to find we could indeed book the tour. With that out of the way, we went for a beer and then to the beach to read for an hour. We did not go onto the beach. It is all rocks, but there are benches along the promenade where we could divert our reading for glimpse of the ocean.

Dinner was pork apple schnitzel that we bought frozen and Ron fried. A salad and some potato chips completed the meal. After dinner, we took another walk along the ocean promenade. The hostel is right across the street. Cloud clusters fascinate me. At one point the sky looked like Swiss dots had been splattered across it. Later in the evening after sunset, one portion of the sky appeared to have a thick dark blue blanket pulled partially over it, while the rest still had the lighter blue sheet exposed. When we returned to the hostel, we heard people mention a storm was coming.

Pin It Now!

Boxing Day - Round 1

I never really understood Boxing Day and after living in Europe for over 9 Boxing Days, everyone  I have questioned has no idea what the significance of the holiday is. So why is it that countries so far away from Europe still celebrate it as a holiday? The British invasion is the answer. It is another excuse to have a day off, close the stores, unwind after a lackluster (by American standards) Christmas day. Did that South African or Australian Christmas picnic really take it all out of you that you needed an extra day to recuperate? 

Well, with the few options left to us, we had to source out the things that were open. Our bus leaves for Napier today at 4pm, so we have the day to play. Our bags are secured at the hostel. We ventured back to Government Gardens where reportedly the Rotorua Museum was open today. T'was, so we opted for the free tour provided by volunteer docents. Today, Anne was the docent of the day and she gave us a comprehensive tour of this incredible museum. It was designed by a Balentologist, though I am not sure of the spelling, it is a specialist who determines bodily cures based on the mineral composition of thermal waters. The one who designed this thermal bath was from Germany. Unfortunately, his design could not be fully carried out due to money, but the main structure was built and functional. Ahh, but the great earthquake that ruined so much, did this building for a time also. For thirty years, it was leased as a nightclub, but then the lease ran out the city took it over once again. 

There were a number of impressive parts to this thermal that stood out for me. One of the 'treatments' was to put electricity into the tubs when people were bathing to reduce stress. There was 'vibration' therapy for ladies to reduce hysteria. We know what that means, don't we? The baths were taken in private tubs, nothing communal, yet the men and women were still segregated. Mud baths were commonly used, covering a person's body with hot mud. This is something that is in vogue in California as well as other places too. 


There were two movies, which we watched. One was the role of the Maoris in the World War serving in their own battalion. Not only was this eye-opening, it reminded me of the African Americans who fought segregated from the other soldiers. The other was the history of the earthquake. This was in a different room with pew like seating. About half-way into the movie as they start showing the earthquake, the seats start to shake, rattle, roll to the point of having to hold on to the seat. It was quite a surprise, but impressive at the same time. We wandered to the rooftop where the view was spectacular and finally into the basement. It was a splendid 2 1/2 hours. 

We did a final walk around the city, before going to the Pig and Whistle for a late lunch. They had spare ribs, my favorite, which I pigged out on. 


Our bus was at 4:30, so we had time to return to the hostel, relax, read, and write for some time before going to the tourism office. The bus was almost empty; there were only about 7 people on it, so we had our pick of seats. The ride was 3 1/2 hours to Napier, our next stop. 


The scenery was awe-inspiring. For over an hour, it looked like the Jolly Green Giant planted miles upon miles of broccoli. The tops of trees looked like the tops of broccoli spears. The green was never ending. Then miles later, there were pastures that seemed to go on forever. Because of the hills and mountains, it looked like some giant throw out a large green carpet, but never bothered to flatten the wrinkles and bubbles. Can one go green blind, like snow blindness? Awesome! Just totally awesome. I really tried to break my vision from the window to my book, but was only successful for minutes at a time. 


Napier is on the ocean. Our driver let us off at the tourism office on the ocean front. He shared with us that the best gelato place was directly across the street and if he did not have 3 passengers on the bus, he would indulge himself. He reminded me of a hairier version of Jack Black. 


Our hostel, another YHA, is down the street. The facility is not as wonderful as the last one, but it is clean and the people are friendly. Once we dumped our things, we headed for the grocery store, but it had closed at 8pm. With no hope of groceries, the next best thing was a pub, and then bed.

Related articles

• The History Behind Boxing Day (downtheavenue.com)

Pin It Now!

I Guess It Is Christmas

The first thing we did this morning, was go for our Christmas stockings, dumping the contents out on the floor, and then ripping the paper off of each little gift that Santa brought us. What that amusement was over, we ran to sit under the Christmas tree and took turns passing presents to each other waiting patiently while the other opened it, had time to ooh and aah, say thank you and set it aside waiting for the next turn to come around. 

Okay, fantasy over. There were no stockings, there was no tree, there were no presents large or small, so there was no Christmas paper to worry about whether or not it is recyclable. What a stressful situation that has turned into. Do I toss or recycle? There was nothing to remind us it was Christmas, not that it matters that much to me anymore. I do feel saddened over loss of traditions for the next generations, but I guess they are making their own. 

Christmas Day is a difficult day for travelers in many countries, because so many places close for the day, but to make matters worse, there are a number of them that close the next day too for Boxing Day. This makes choices of things to do severely limited. Ron always finds it entertaining to go to mass. Since he goes to mass weekly at home, it is not an unusual activity; what is unusual is that I accompany him. Christmas only mind you, I don’t want him to think I am going to make a habit of this. Actually, I only go to mass if I think it will be different or really interesting. I went with him in Kenya last year and Melbourne the year before. We have done Christmas mass together in Thailand and Rome our first year today. It turned out he was able to get tickets to the Vatican for midnight mass. Who could pass up that show?  As it turned out, we had ringside seats. Talk about a great score!

This Christmas, we went to the 9am mass at St. Faith’s Episcopal Church. It was quite a distance from the hostel, taking us a good thirty minutes of ins and outs of streets to find it. It sits on the waterfront, so when one finally sees it from a distance, it is quite impressive. St. Faith’s is in the Maori district, starting as a parish to meet the needs of the Maori people. Certainly, the Maori people didn’t have needs that their tribal religions did not fill, but Christians showed them “THE WAY”. Outside the church looks like a little British church with Tudor décor, but inside is the surprise. Every wall is covered with Maori tribal weavings on the walls, completed in reeds and other materials. On a side altar, a stained glass window has Christ wearing a Maori cloak as he is walking on Lake Rotorua. The priest started out really deadpan, but broke out into a humorous sermon, starting with “If I don’t see some cheer in your faces, I am packing it on and going home.” Apparently the congregation enjoys him. For the most part, it looked like the sermon was warmly received. What was interesting was the fact that the service, prayers and songs were in both English and Maori. Everyone, excluding Ron and I, repeated everything in both languages. We both wondered how English never won out as the only language with a congregation mix of 70/30.  Across from the church is the Tama-te-kapua Meeting house, built in 1905 for the Te Arawa Maori as a sacred meeting house. It is not open to the public.

From here we walked a different route back to town while along the way checking to see which restaurants were open. When we found the restaurant street, it was a major disappointment to see only two open from the twenty or more that filled blocks. We did stop at one and had pancakes with “streaky” bacon. Our assumption was that streaky meant it had fat on it. Either way, it was delicious. We had hoped to go to the Pig and Whistle, a historic restaurant, but it was closed.

With not much to do, we walked to the Government Gardens, a tremendously large English style garden area with six crochet courts that each could easily sport 2 or more games at once, a mini-golf range, baseball batting range, the Rotorua Museum and a hot thermal spa. Being a holiday, everything commercial here was closed, but we did manage to spend a few hours walking around the area. Because this area is known for its sulphur deposits, the air is thick smelling like the stink bombs we used to make in high school chemistry for a prank. As you walk around the area, there are numerous geo-thermal areas with the hot water mixed with chemicals is bubbling out of the earth, causing stream. They are easy to find; they are fenced off for security. There is one walkway you can view what it has done to the earth in certain areas. This is called Sulphur Bay. (note that sulphur is the British spelling; American English, it is sulfur).

By the time, we returned from our walk, we hunted down a café for a coffee, but ran out of luck. With the limited choices of restaurants, we decided to change our plans by having a Caesar salad using up our lettuce, cheese, and ham tonight. Tomorrow, we will go to the Pig and Whistle for dinner before our bus out of Rotorua.

Related articles

• The First Christmas on New Zealand Shores (socyberty.com)

Pin It Now!

Christmas Eve Day

Without a coffee pot available we resort to tea. Neither of us takes to instant coffee without a struggle. Ron was getting breakfast ready, so I decided to look for butter. At the reception, they told me about a ‘dairy’ a few blocks away giving me directions to find it. Thinking ‘dairy’, I was not sure what to look for, but pictured a place with cows that offered fresh milk, butter, and cheese. After following the directions for five blocks, I found Diana’s Dairy, disappointed when what I found is what we would call a convenience store. Besides butter, I was able to find a bar of soap, we had forgotten that at the supermarket too, resorting to have to use shampoo for showering. They also had band-aids, so I bought a small box for my blistering small toe.

As I left the dairy, I could not help but notice a lovely bakery right next door. They had luscious looking goodies, so I splurged on 2 mango muffins for breakfast. They had coffee to go, so I thought to get 2 of them, but they didn’t have way to carry multiple cups back. I had heard the woman tell the guy ahead of me to be careful, it was hot, which clued me in to ask before ordering. She directed me to yet another place down the street. I cannot help but wonder how much business they lose out on with such a simple solution at hand. With an armful already, I hesitated roaming down the street, but noticed that there was a coffee shop two doors away from the bakery, yet it was not the one that the bakery lady had suggested. I went in and sure enough they had a cardboard tray for me to negotiate the coffees, the muffins, soap, butter, and band-aids that I had to cart back to the hostel.


When I arrived bearing gifts, well it is Christmas eve morning after all, Ron had already heated up the two quiches we had bought as well as ham on garlic bread. The muffins were set aside for another meal, but the coffee was certainly good.


We had decided to visit the Agrodome: The Unique NZ Experience where there is fun, entertainment, and education. Sales pitches like these make me suspicious, but it did sound fun at the same time. I was hoping they were not pulling the wool over our eyes. Having an early breakfast, we had time to catch the 10:30 bus to get us to the Agrodome for the 11am show. Directions for reaching the bus stop were a bit convoluted, so we had to ask multiple times, but found it with 10 minutes to spare. The driver let us out right at the foot of the Agrodome entrance and we rushed up the 3 block long entrance to get our tickets in time for the show.


We bought the combo tickets, so our first event was the sheep show, but prior to it starting, you are welcomed to go around and pet the nineteen different types of sheep will be displayed for the show. Not one of the stars was sheepish about having his photos taken; they all posed like the little lambs they once were. One by one, each of the nineteen breeds of sheep were introduced taking their place on a pyramid stage where their breed name is displayed beneath them. There was only one that was naturally black, but three breeds with big horns. The commentator gave a brief history of each variety once they were in place. After all sheep were on their step, the commentator did a sheep shearing demonstration. A champion sheep shearer can shear 700 sheep in a 9 hour day. Once the poor spectacle sheep was now shown naked and sent off stage, the next event was the dog herding exhibition where three trained dogs show off their mettle in handling three petrified ducks, not letting them get out of hand or off of the stage. Finally, volunteers were called to the stage. Ron was amongst them. Each was giving a bottle, and then baby lambs were let loose to be fed by the volunteers. At the end of the show, the sheep were left in place for us to pet again and pose with for photos. All nineteen of them said “Make sure you come baaaaaaaaack soon.”


Outside, the next part of the show was a dog herding demonstration with sheep. The dog ran those poor sheep this way and that way, but it is obvious the dog is well trained. Last on the agenda was a farm tour. A tractor pulls an open vehicle that holds about thirty people. We were taken into the kiwi orchard, to examine kiwi just now fruiting. If kiwi are not yet ripe and kept cold, they can be stored for up to 9 months. After they start to warm, they will fully ripen, making them ideal for exportation around the world. We also saw an orchard of a fruit none of us had heard of before, something like a jiajua, though we did not see any on the vines, so we still do not know exactly what they are. We were treated to kiwi wine and kiwi juice mixed with Aloe Vera.


From here the real fun began. The farm has thousands of sheep, goats, alpacas, and one llama. We were told that due to the mild year round climate, all animals can live outside year round, so they have acres and acres to roam. However once they see this vehicle, they all come dashing toward it. We are all given handfuls of pellets to feed them and they know the good guys have arrived. If you have never been stampeded by alpacas, you have not lived. One red alpaca took a shine to me, but butted me each time I gave any food to a sheep or another alpaca. At the same time, she/he would whine letting me know I had an unhappy furball on my hands. It was tons of fun playing Dr. Doolittle. The last part of the journey was through the cow pasture, where they have twelve varieties of cows from around the world. One bull was about the size of the bull statue in the NYC financial district and is often shown in movies. Humungous!! www.agrodome.co.nz

All during this time, we were wearing shorts, but the weather changed cooling down considerably. Once the show was over, we were anxious for the bus to arrive. Standing on the roadside, when we spotted the bus, we flagged it down the way the driver delivering us had taught us, but the driver of this bus pointed and passed us by. It took a couple of cold minutes to realize he was going to turn around to pick us up on the other side of the street. We made it back in time to rest up for the evening’s adventure.

Pin It Now!

Time to Leave Auckland

Time to leave Auckland for this go around, but we will be back. Perhaps by then, we will either need the rest or find something exciting to do. D has proven to be a gracious host. He does do a very nice breakfast with his home baked muffins. We left right after breakfast to catch a bus downtown. The plan is to go to Esquires Coffee where you receive one free hour of Internet with every purchase. We will make our purchases individually for more time. At 12:15, we will catch the NakedBus out of the city.
Esquires turned out to be a bit of a dud. At the very least they are very misleading in their offer, which claims an hour of free WiFi Internet. There is a catch, a rather significant one. Yes, you do get an hour; however, you only receive 25 MB of data transfer. Twenty-five MB in this day and age is a thimble full of data. I sometimes get 1 e-mail that is over that amount. Needless to say, I was downloading my mail and was kicked off of the Internet within minutes. Ron went to place his order, I received his sign in card and again within minutes, slam-bam-thank you sir-goodbye. That was the end of part 2 of the Internet chronicles, but the beginning of my dashed hopes of having free Internet service. Purchasing it is NZ $3 for a half hour some places and an hour at others, but that still runs into money when I receive over a hundred e-mails a day and have a need to blog. Okay, put that on hold for now.

Time to board the NakedBus. There are no assigned seats, so you need to muscle your way in early on. NakedBus is like an earthbound version of RyanAir or other economy modes of transportation. We are taking multiple trips with this line, but this is the first of them. We will ride for four hours from Auckland to Rotorua (pronounced roe-toe-rue-ah OR if you prefer row-tow-roux-ah). More on this town later, but the bus was great. The seats are wide, new, and comfortable. They have video screens hanging from the ceiling, but no movies were shown. Just as well. I found the scenery interesting most of the time, green hills and dales, pastures of sheep and cows, but napping was on the agenda as well. There are no bathrooms on the bus, so the rest stop had everyone making a mad dash out the door.

As we pulled into Rotorua, it definitely had a feel good vibration. The business district was extensive, but still had a cozy, small town feel to them. We are staying at a YHA Youth Hostel Association. We used a couple of YHA facilities in Australia and found them to be excellent, so we are testing the NZ varieties. Regardless of the moniker, any age persons are welcomed and we are not the oldest here. Our modest private room is ensuite with two twin beds, a plastic chair, a wooden box for a table and some hooks on the walls. The beds are comfortable, the sheets and shower are clean; all our needs are cared for. The kitchen has six stove tops, each with four burners, six sinks as well and two huge refrigerators for everyone to store their food. Footlocker type shelving is available for non-perishables. Stickers are provided to mark all of your goodies so others will not mistake them for their own.

We trekked to the nearest grocery store, which turned out to be a real trek. It is outside of the downtown area in a mall type one level of stores environment. If I had my camera, I would have taken pictures of the different and unusual foods lining the shelves. This is a fascinating part of travel, one you are sure to experience when hostelling. It saves so much money by cooking then eating out 3 meals a day, every day. Alternatively, with the grocery store such as walk, when you forget a stable, you want to kick yourself. As soon as we returned, we did not get butter. But heck, we did remember the beer, so all was not lost.

Related articles

• Auckland City Council: Beautify your city, Bushy hedge rubbish bags (adsoftheworld.com)

Pin It Now!