Te Papa Museum

Our Lunch at Te Papa

Wednesday - The day was kind of cloudy and windy - a good day to go to a museum. We hopped on the now familiar bus for the 1/2 hour ride to town. The Kiwi's (New Zealanders) are very friendly. I asked the bus driver which stop we should get off for the museum. He told us it's the last stop before the turnaround but that we should stay on the bus - he had to fuel up and the gas station was right across the street from the museum so we could get off there. Then he asked us where we were from and was surprised to hear we were from Mexico - he thought we were from the UK. Te Papa is a large museum which has wonderful exhibits about Earthquakes, Volcanos, New Zealand in general, wildlife, the environment and on and on. We had a nice lunch there and then spent several hours looking at exhibits - until we were worn out even though we didn't see all of it. We'll go back another day to finish.

Thursday we decided to take a day off from sightseeing, do laundry and take a trip to the supermarket. It's very interesting to see what kinds of things they have in the stores that are different from what we're used to. There are a lot of ethnic ingredients - especially for Asian cooking. Groceries are more expensive than what we're used to in Mexico - probably about like the US, though. One very bizarre item, though, is a product called Marmite (in Australia they have a similar product called Vegemite). My friend Ingrid told me to avoid it - she's been to Australia - it's vile. I mentioned it to our rental car people, and before we took off in our car he presented us with a gift of a jar of Marmite. They spread it on their toast for breakfast. I opened it and it smelled strongly of yeast. Yup - that's what its base was - 80% yeast, the label said. Anyway, it's indescribable. I tried a tiny bit on a piece of toast and Ingrid was right, it's vile. John, on the other hand, thought it was o.k. but he definitely prefers marmalade on his toast. I suspect we'll leave the Marmite behind for our hosts. I guess it's supposed to be healthy - full of B vitamins and iron.

I took some pictures of the flowers in Moira's garden this afternoon. You can check my Web Albums if you're interested. They are quite beautiful.

Exploring Wellington

After our good night's rest on Sunday, we were eager to head into Wellington to do a little exploring. Our hosts left plenty of brochures and information so that we could investigate the many opportunities. We decided to leave the car in the garage and use public transportation which is very good here. With bus schedule in hand we walked about a block to the bus stop on the bay. The ride into town was pleasant and took about 1/2 hr. to the center of Wellington. Our all-day Senior tickets cost $5 NZ each and worth it to not have to drive.

Our first day in town we did a lot of walking just to get the lay of the land. We ended up in a pedestrian area called the Cuba mall. It is an older part of downtown with lots of little shops and cafes. The architecture was a mish-mash and not very attractive. We had Fish & Chips for lunch - a very common staple here and it was very tasty. We then walked a little more and found ourselves in a more modern area of trendy shops and restaurants. Eventually we found the right bus to head back to Lower Hutt and spent the evening relaxing at "home".

Tuesday we arose bright and early again - not quite adjusted to the new time zone. Again we headed for town on the bus and now feel like we know our way around.

In the late 1800's, Wellington built a cable car system to go from downtown up the steep hills to another part of town. It still exists - with modernizations and modifications over the years. Now at the top of the cable car route is a little museum about the history of the cable cars and a 35 acre botanical garden. We rode the tram up and walked through the museum and then the extensive gardens which are quite magnificent. We especially enjoyed the enormous rose garden and greenhouses filled with unbelievable tuberous begonias and another room of tropical plants. I have uploaded a lot of pictures to Picasa Web Albums and you can look at them there if you wish. The website is: http://picasaweb.google.com/equussanmiguel Check back regularly as I add pictures along the way.

We walked down from the gardens and found a Thai restaurant that looked good for lunch. It was very good - we had to eat with chopsticks which neither of us had done for a while. We managed but it was a bit awkward. John had a scallops entree and I had pork and mushrooms in won ton wrappers with a delicious sauce and coconut rice.

After lunch we headed for the wharf and found the Wellington history and maritime museum. We spent several hours there - it was very interesting - learned a lot about the history of Wellington and the Maouri people.

It was alomost 5:00 when we left the museum and we were getting a little weary so found a bus and headed for home with a stop for a few groceries on the way.

The Long Journey

The worst part about visiting New Zealand and Australia is getting there. It is a very long ways to go. Our journey started with a 4 a.m. pickup to take us to Leon for the 3 1/2 hr flight to Los Angeles. Our flight to Auckland was not until 8:30 p.m. so we had the day in Los Angeles. It was just the right amount of time to visit the Getty Museum. The Getty is a very beautiful place with wonderful gardens and architecture -no expense was spared. We particularly enjoyed a 45 min tour describing how the museum complex was designed and constructed. My nephew, who lives in LA, came by to meet us for lunch so it was a pleasant way to spend our layover.

Then it was back to the airport for all the security check-ins and boarding. A very full plane meant that we had no extra room to get comfortable for the 12 1/2 hr. flight to Auckland. We flew on Qantas and the flight was actually not too bad with decent food and we each had a personal video screen in the seatback in front of us. I watched "The Queen" and "Little Miss Sunshine" as well as part of "The Last King of Scotland". I got a little sleep, but not much. John can sleep anywhere so he did quite well.

Upon our arrival in Auckland we easily cleared customs and called our car rental company for pick-up. Soon we were on our way to Wellington. It's about 350 miles but NZ highways are not like our superhighways so it is much slower to get somewhere. We were too tired to travel very far so we just drove 3 hours and stopped in Rotarua which is a tourist area with mineral hot springs and a large lake. We found a very nice motel - practically new with suites and every room had a hot tub - exactly what we needed after our travels. It was still early afternoon so we visited a museum that used to be a bath house in the 1800's. They also had exhibits about a devastating volcanic eruption there that killed 120 people. It was all very interesting but we were really wiped out and after soaking in our hot tub, we crashed around 6 p.m.

Next morning we awoke at 6:00 a.m. and as soon as it was light we walked a mile or so and finally found a cafe that was open for breakfast. Then we were on our way to Wellington. John was doing the driving and I was the navigator. It was a bit hairy watching him getting used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road. He did pretty well except for one right turn that was very scary . After that I kept reminding him to "keept left". It also took him a while to use the turn signal instead of the windshield wiper when making a turn.

The scenery from Auckland to Wellington was amazing - very, very green - every shade of green you can imagine. Many forests followed by rolling hills, mountains, and pastures dotted with sheep, cattle and more sheep. The highways were mostly two lanes with occasional short term passing lanes. The speed limit was never more than 100 km/hr (62 mph). We were warned by the car rental people that they are quite strict about enforcing the speed limits so we were very careful.

We arrived in the Wellington area after about 5 hours with just one stop for gas (US equiv. about $4.25/gallon). Our home exchange is just outside the city on the harbor in an area called Lower Hutt. We had good directions from our hosts and found the house without too much trouble. It is large, welcoming and comfortable with a fabulous garden. As we were unlocking the front door, the next door neighbors came by to welcome us and offer their help should we need any. They told us where the nearest grocery store was located so after dropping off our luggage we headed down the road for a few supplies for a light supper and breakfast. We relaxed and unwound and soon felt quite at home. We faded again pretty early and slept well in our comfortable bed.

Our Plans

We have been doing home exchanges since about 2003. We have now completed ten successful exchanges via homlink.org and are about to embark on our longest exchange - both in distance and time. We are going to New Zealand and Australia.

On March 1, 2007 we will fly from Leon, Guananjuato to Los Angeles, CA. We'll have a whole day's layover there so plan to visit the Getty Museum before our flight to Auckland, NZ departs. We will arrive in Auckland on March 3 (a 12 1/2 hr flight - ugh!) where we have arranged for a rental car. That should be an adventure in itself since they drive on the "wrong" side of the road there. Even though it's only about 350 miles from Auckland to Wellington - our destination - we plan to take two days so that we can enjoy some fabulous NZ scenery along the way without being in a hurry.

Our exchangers are not coming to San Miguel at this time. It will be a non-simultaneous exchange - they can come to our home at some future mutually agreeable date. Shirley and Bruce Gough will be going elsewhere for their son's wedding and we will stay in their home while they are gone - about a week and a half. When they return, we will move on to their beach home on the Coromandel Penninsula - the town of Paunaui. We will stay there for about a week and a half. From there we will return our rental car in Auckland and fly on to Perth, Australia on the 24th of March. Our exchangers in Perth will arrive at our home in San Miguel at the same time. We will spend three weeks in Perth. Finally, we will head home with a 4 night stop in Sydney. When we arrive in Los Angeles, we will spend two nights there before returning to San Miguel on April 19th. Whew! It is a very long trip - the longest away from home ever.

I will update this blog regularly while we are on the trip and will post pictures. Please check back regularly if you are interested and you can post comments too.