North Island- Sunday- Wellington!

Sorry it has been so long since my last update- in Austin now! Started my new internship. I am going to try and bang out the rest of the posts (the rest of my week on the north island, final days in new Zealand, reflections, welcome to america, and Austin, in the following days.)

Sunday I got up early to see the city. The first thing I did was to walk the writers walk, a cool little path on the that wraps around the harbor with sculpture, cool bridges and every now and then a quote from a famous New Zealand authors. After that I visited a cool little farmers market and then made my was to a panoramic view of the city.

To see the city from above I climber Mount Victoria, it took some time but fortunately, I was young, fit, and foolhardy. The views of the city, however, were breath-taking, or maybe that was me just gasping for air from the long hike up. I think I went a little crazy with the camera there.

After I had thoroughly soaked in the sites I headed down the other side of the mountain for the WETA workshop, it turned out to be over an hour and halfs walk away, but I did it! And was very happy to arrive. The workshop does a lot of the special effects for movies- most prominently The Lord of the Rings, The Narnia Movies, and Tintin.

I was so exhausted from the trip that I took a but back to downtown- much easier. And then I treated myself to some cheap Indian food- nothing like naan and tikka masala for the hungry traveler.

After that I visited the national museum of New Zealand- FREE. It has everything, culture, science, history, art--it was all there. It also has the only specimen of an intact giant squid- huge- to say the least. I also saw an ammonite fossil that had at leas a 4-5 foot diameter.

To take a break from Te Papa I also visited the Museum of City and Sea- a more local museum of Wellington's history. And then I stopped by a gallery and then the Modern art Museum, finally- to burn another hour I headed back to finish what I started- the behemoth of Te Papa.

The day finished with a free pasta meal from my hostel- all a very productive day.

I went a little crazy with photoshops new applications- ENJOY!

Writers walk 

The wind-spinner

The Dark Lord is watching 

District 12

This ones for you- Steven

The sky was so weird!

Giant Ammonite!

Giant Squid!