Wellington Mar 12

There is a quaintness and naivete in Dunedin that with nothing more than a verbal declaration of my last name (no ID even necessary) I can be issued a plane ticket and hop on a plane, (carry-on bag not even security screened) to the capital city. I enjoyed a long weekend away visiting caving mates in Wellington and taking in the sights and sounds of the hilly capital city of Wellington. I am most certainly not a city person, but Wellington has a definite charm and a certain amount of intimacy that I have yet to experience in similar sized cities. It was surprisingly easy to get around the city on foot or by bus. I spent the evening listening to one of my very favorite bands, Calexico, play in a converted boat shed down on the waterfront. They sounded every bit as amazing live as I could have guessed.

The following day I wandered around the city enjoying the architecture and public sculptures. It was great to see the green grass, open gates and abundance of park benches in the New Zealand Parliament Buildings compound where people sat under trees on their lunch breaks and ate their sandwiches (that same quaintness and naivete perhaps). I walked into the Parliament building (through a security screening) and jumped onto a free tour of Parliament which was fascinating and very educational. I found some of the bizarre traditions and rituals particularly fascinating. For example, Parliament is called into session with a mace and one cannot walk directly in front of the Queen so there is a purpose-built passage that goes behind the throne. Despite the grandiose buildings, the government felt small, appropriately sized for a nation of only 4 million. I got to see the debate chambers and meeting rooms and some beautiful hallways of Takaka marble. I even saw the Queen's chair and the lucky elephant. Unfortunately cameras were not allowed in the buildings.

I also had a nice look at Te Papa (Our Place), the national museum, which is an easy way to kill the better part of a day. On the Saturday we went caving in Okupata Cave near National Park, which had enough passage to keep us entertained for 4 hours (i.e. not much). Huge thanks to Alex for the Wellington hospitality.

Above: The Beehive, the Executive Wing of the New Zealand Government