Wellington

July 15, 2009

I woke up this morning taking my time getting ready. I really wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my time today so I wasn’t in any great rush to get up. I spent time online and decided to see if I could get a cheap ticket to Auckland. I had been planning on taking the bus from Wellington back to Auckland but it’s an all day affair and I really didn’t feel like doing it, even though it’s $70 NZ for the privilege (that’s about $49 US). I went to the Air New Zealand website and found a ticket for $69 NZ on the 29th. So, it’s cheaper (well, one dollar cheaper, but still), saves hours of travel time, and is much more pleasant. No brainer for sure! Most of my remaining two weeks are still unstructured and unplanned but I now have some definite dates… the 16th: going to Raven’s house in Masterton & we’re going to see a play in town. On the 17th: We have ferry tickets to cross over to the South Island. We’re thinking of heading back across the ferry on the 27th, I believe, in case the weather is bad so I could cross on the 28th as well. Other than that, I have no idea where I’m going to be when. Yay!

I ventured out and decided to hop on the bus to the cable cars. This is one of those things that all tourists to Wellington must do (I didn’t know about them last time I was here) and since I am playing tourist, I headed on over. The cable cars are at Lambton Quay (pronounced ‘key’ in NZ), which is where the prime shopping is in Wellington. Lambton Quay is also at the base of a very steep hill, hence the cable car. I road it up to the top and I can’t say that it was the greatest thrill of my life but worth $5 round trip. My hands were freezing (I’m not used to this winter thing) so I went into the free museum at the top and bought wool gloves at the gift shop. It’s helpful being in NZ in winter because one of their main exports is sheep so you know there are gloves nearby whenever you need them! With warm hands I walked through the museum and then headed up to the cafe. I ordered the soup of the day, a side salad and tea. Simple, right? Hmm, apparently not. The tea came right away and I was thoroughly enjoying myself as I sat at the window overlooking a breathtaking view of Wellington (remember that I went up a steep hill). I then waited for my food… and waited… and waited. Did I mention that it was soup and a side salad? A good 1/2 hour later I went up and asked if everything was okay. The waitress said it was and that it’d be coming up soon. Um, no. I waited and waited again until FINALLY it came. The waitress explained that the cook was new and couldn’t figure (something) out. With her accent, I couldn’t tell what (something) was but it didn’t matter. I had my food. I don’t like to complain, but come on! I’m glad I wasn’t on a time crunch. After the exceedingly leisurely lunch I went outside and explored the Wellington Botanical Gardens. I took a ton of pictures of the view and the plants there and amused myself for quite a while. They had an Australia Garden, which seemed out of place surrounded by tree ferns and lush green forests, but they gave it a shot. They also had a visitor centre that was a tree house, which was kind of cool. I had walked quite a ways downhill as I meandered through the garden and saw a sign that led to the bottom of the major hill. I considered continuing on that path but decided to head back up to the cable car. It felt good to be walking so much as I haven’t been doing enough walking most of my trip. It’s the hazard of being in a car, although I am very grateful for the car! I got back on the cable car and sat in front. A grandfather and his two grandchildren sat down next to me and the kids started blowing raspberries at each other. The grandfather tried repeatedly to get them to stop, to which they would laugh and do it again. I wanted to tell them off and to listen to their grandfather. I didn’t, however.

I arrived back at the bottom of the hill in Lambton Quay and decided to walk around and look at the shops. I was especially interested in bookstores. Lonely Planet listed three or four bookshops in the city so I made it a goal to find each and every one. I started with the country’s chain, “Whitcoull’s”. I walked in and saw the prices listed for the books, realizing that books in NZ are ridiculously expensive. Grrr. I walked back out and against my better judgment, I went into a Borders. Why is there a Borders in NZ? Ugh. I went inside and looked around. Yes, it was much bigger than the Kiwi stores and yes, they had some books on sale, but I just couldn’t be in there. Give me an independent bookstore any day! I walked back out and went off in search of the other stores. The first one on my list wasn’t very far away so I walked along the street looking at addresses until I came to the store. I took out my camera and took a picture of it and then walked up to it. It was out of business. :( I guess being near Whitcoull’s and Borders was not a good thing. I then went in search of Unity Books, a store that I had seen the day before so I knew it was still in business. I had assumed that it was a religious bookstore so I hadn’t stopped in. Definitely NOT a religious bookstore and full of wonderful NZ children’s books. I bought a picture book (still very expensive) and while I wanted to buy lots more books, they were all new so full price. I went off in search of the other used bookstore listed in my guidebook. I walked to the other side of downtown, following the address until I came to 19 Courtenay and then … 15 Courtenay… where was 17?! There was a sign saying that kebabs were coming soon there so… another independent bookstore was out of business. This made me incredibly sad and I opened my guidebook to reread the entry and saw that there were two locations listed. OK, maybe there was still a chance. I saw that the other location wasn’t too far away so I walked over and … it was still there! It is called Arty Bee Books and it was wonderful. They keep their NZ authors separate and when they asked if they could help me, I said I was a teacher in the States and would love to bring back some great Kiwi children’s literature with me. I literally had three employees rush over to pick out their favorite books from when they were kids. One of the employees was recently a teacher and told me the books that the kids were now into. I ended up with a big pile of books, which I had to wheedle down a bit (much cheaper used, but still about the price of a book new in the States). It was really fun hearing them talk about their favorites and I learned about Kiwi authors like Margaret Mahy and Michael Gee. I had a great time and I’m glad I stuck with it and found the store.

By the time I was in Arty Bee, Raven called and said that she was nearby. After I left the bookstore, I went off to find her near Te Papa and then we headed over to G’s work to pick her up. We were a bit early so stopped at a little independent used bookstore across the street from where she works and browsed for a while. We then picked her up, went back to her house so she could change and then headed down to the mall for dinner and Harry Potter. We settled on a Malaysian noodle place for dinner, had a nice meal and then headed over to the movie. It was packed and there were some little Harrys, a Mad Eye Moody and some kid dressed as an insect (I didn’t get what that was all about). We waited in line until they opened the door and we walked in. The nice thing about New Zealand (on days like this where it’s crowded) is that cinema seats are assigned so we didn’t have to rush to be the first ones there because we already had our seat. Another really nice thing that I didn’t realize until we got there is that we were there through R’s work (Raven’s husband) so they had popcorn, ice cream and drinks there for us to have. How nice is that? We saw the movie, I loved it but will keep quiet about it as it’s sure to have spoilers, and Raven and I happily tore it apart afterwards. So much so that G thought we didn’t like it. LOL.