New Zealand - Wellington

Wellington is very similar to Auckland. The one big difference is while a public transportation system exists, it isn’t as prevalent. Instead of a day of adventure, we were a bit more cultured and spent the day exploring the city and went to a couple of museums. The Wellington Museum was small and quaint, but gave a rich history of the city. We also went to the Te Papa museum. It was a mixture of art, history, and science.

Many of the displays that I’ve seen in the past couple of days project hologram like images intermingling real life artifacts and projected imagery. It’s a great use of technology, and I hope to see it used in the states soon. On a grander scale, I think it could bring so much of history to life (for those of us that lack an imagination). The interactive displays have been insightful as well. Hopefully, this will continue to connect the next generation with its past.

At the Wellington Museum there was a whole section on maritime history. The thing that struck me were some of the superstitions that sailors have. Nothing surprised me much, but one was new to me. I knew having women aboard was considered bad luck, but apparently naked women were considered to bring down swells and create safe passage. Now the first thing that came to my mind was an excuse for sailors to get a girl’s clothes off. Also according to the information, this is the reason for the scantily clad women decorated at the bow of the ship. Still seems like an excuse to me, but I digress.

The Te Papa Museum was quite large. We didn’t even get a chance to explore the whole thing before closing. The thing that struck me most was the Oceania section. They showed a large subsection of coral, and as you read the description it always ended, “not much is known about this species of coral.” Just a small reminder that we know more about space than we do about the world’s oceans. Much of our oceans remain unexplored and there’s much that we do not understand about it. They are the Earth’s life source, and yet we take it for granted every day. The section itself was small, and could have been elaborated upon.

So that does it for my north island adventure of New Zealand. Tomorrow we take the ferry to the south island and start a whole new adventure. I’m excited for the new explorations that lie ahead.