On the streets of Wellington!
Hello everyone!
Just a quick posting this morning from Wellington… Life is wonderful! We’re actually in the same hotel for 3 whole nights (longest stay so far!), it’s a beautiful hotel, and It’s my first free morning in 2 weeks! I’m pretty happy!
Yesterday we visited Tongariro National Park. This is one of the places where there are active volcanoes in NZ. This is a World Heritage Site for both physical wonder and cultural significance. The volcanoes are held as sacred by the Maori and there is a bit of conflict over the ski industry that operates there. The Maori view the mountain as a spiritual base for their connection with the land. We did go up to the ski area to be in the snow, but I wasn’t that comfortable with that. It was nice to be able to walk around on the volcano however. It has some recent eruption history and it’s activity is monitored quite closely today. I’m posting a slide show of some of the views. As I’m sure you’ve come to expect about New Zealand – they’re impressive.
My exploration of Wellington has been limited to last night and this morning, but it has quite the night life. As we were walking around at 6:30am, there were still bars open, taxis lined up, and people more than a little tipsy walking around. Today I plan to explore the city a little, do some shopping, and then we will visit the famous Te Papa museum. It has a wonderful collection of Maori articles and New Zealand information. Looking forward to it! Enjoy your Sunday – I know I will!
