My last stop in New Zealand was Wellington, the capital city. I spent one of my days visiting what I thought were all the "must see" sights. The first stop was Cuba street.
Cuba street is in the more bohemian and funky part of town and also where lots of restaurants and cafes are located. I stopped along Cuba street for breakfast. It had been quite a while since I had avocado on bread, so I went with the avocado on a bagel from Best Ugly Bagels!
After breakfast I headed towards the water and stopped on an interesting looking bridge for some photos. This sculpture I believe is somehow supposed to represent the land meeting the sea? Or maybe it is a loose representation of the two islands of New Zealand?
This little quote caught my eye. I read it as basically telling to me live my best life while I was here. Good advice I'd say! I'll be sure to make good on that!
After crossing the bridge, I'd arrived at my first main stop of the day, Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand.
I won't bore you with lots of photos of museum exhibits, though the first exhibit I saw on New Zealand's role in World War I was very well done. It was a series of small dark rooms through winding hallways telling the story of the battles fought by New Zealanders in Turkey. Every few rooms you'd be faced with a larger than life figure from the story or battle that was being described. Some of the images and audio throughout the exhibit were pretty intense and violent but really helped tell quite a vivid story.
After a few hours in the museum I was back outside and it had turned into a pretty nice day!
A bit later I passed by the Old Bank Shopping arcade.
Up next was Cable Car Lane! Cancel the rest of the day's activities folks, we've spotted a cable car!
The cable car takes you on a short 5 minute ride up the hill. There are a few little tunnels with multi colored flashing lights. At the top the was a nice view of the city.
You really don't want to know how much time I "wasted" waiting for the cable car to come and go so I could get some of these photos with the cable car in them. One of the perks of traveling alone, you can be crazy and no one will yell at you!
After I was done having my photo shoot with the shiny red cable car, I started my walk down the hill through Wellington's botanical gardens.
Once I got to the bottom of the hill my next stop was New Zealand's Parliament, nicknamed the Beehive.
I arrived just as a tour was starting so I decided to join in. Unfortunately photos were not allowed, but I was a little surprised that we were were taken right to the house floor. It was a beautiful room though smaller than I might have expected, seating 112 representatives. After that we went into one of the "committee rooms" where bills are put to debate. Perhaps I should have known these things already, but I found it interesting that New Zealand only has a lower house and no upper house, so no "Senate." They used to have one, but it was dissolved in 1950. The story of how they got rid of it was quite interesting. The members of the upper house were appointed, so the leader of the National party at the time, Sidney Holland, said if his party won and he become Prime Minister he'd abolish the upper house. Well, he won, so he appointed members to the upper house who pledged to resign. They were known as the suicide squad. Once they were appointed they resigned and yes a few other things I'm sure had to take place, but the upper house was no more by the end of 1950. New Zealand also allows any person from anywhere in the world of any age to submit a bill for consideration. They were also very proud to note on the tour that New Zealand was the very first country in the world to grant women the right the vote. Pretty cool, get it New Zealand!
After Parliament I stopped at Old St. Paul's Church. It was pretty neat given that for the duration of my visit I was the only person in the church. #praying #kesha
After leaving the church I headed back to the hotel for a rest. The next day I'd be heading back to Oz!
