Wellington March 5-7

March 6
We drove to Wellington to drop off our car and go by foot for the next week. Wellington is a beautiful city that is known as windy Welly. It is located on a major fault line and endured considerable damage from the most recent earthquake near Kaikoura. Several buildings had structural damage. The quake was felt as far north as Rotorua!

We visited the Te Papa museum and learned a lot about NZ. Te Papa means " treasure box" and it was quite interesting and creative.What surprised us the most:
The WaitangiTreaty was developed by the British and translated by a missionary into Maori to establish sovereignty of British rule. Over 500 chiefs eventually signed the treaty. Unfortunately, there wasn't a word in Maori for sovereignty and the realization of signing over sovereignty and control of their lands was a horrible solution to peace between settlers and Maori indigenous people. With the gold rush and more immigrants coming in, the government bought Maori lands and sold them for a much increased price to foreigners.  It wasn't until 1995 that the Queen apologized to the Maori for what they had done. Now Maori have preemptive rights to land sold.

We also learned that there are no native mammals on NZ. All of the animals were brought in- rats, dogs, etc. They have many native birds with very little color and they have a lot of reptiles including a three eyed one that we saw. We also saw many brown huge reptiles called     The Kauri trees that were native to NZ were forested by the Europeans so much that most of the land was prepared for farming and left little bush.

The sails used by he Maori were made of flax woven cloth. That was amazing. There were large weapons made of jade or greenstone or pound until in Maori. They considered them to have powers.  We were able to enter a Marae, which is the spiritual center of the people, but whose purpose was for family business. The Marie's often embody an ancestor, so out of respect you couldn't take photos. There are seats for everyone and you must sit during a meeting. There were beautiful carvings throughout the marae.

We stayed in a bed and breakfast run by  an art gallery owner. She had the place decorated with very different and cool art. She talked about the housing problems in Wellington and the emphasis of purchasing collectives which are apartment buildings with various rooms and shared collective spaces for cooking, doing laundry etc. they are also looking at tiny houses.

We met Dave and Jeanne Reichert for dinner tonight. We first met them in Auckland and compared travel notes to make the connection. We ate at a Malaysian restaurant on Cuba street, which is known for its variety of restaurants. There is quite a heavy influence of Asian and Indian food in this area. There are many Polynesian immigrants in NZ- mostly from Samoa, the islands of Tonga, Nuie, Vanuatu etc. More recently, there are more people from Somalia and Afghanistan. NZ has always had a favorable attitude towards immigrants and many of the people we spoke with are outraged at the recent developments from Trump regarding immigration.

March 7
We boarded the Kaiteri for the 3 and1/2 hour ferry trip to the South Island arriving in Picton. We traveled through Cooks Strait linking the two islands. Apparently Marlborough Sounds with their rugged rocks protruding like fingers and the many bays were formed when the sea flooded the deep river valleys during the ice age. It's beautiful and rugged.
Arriving in Picton, we took a interislander bus to Blenheim and were picked up by our hosts from the B and B. It was rainy today, so it was a low key day and a good travel day. We walked to dinner at the Cork and Keg- a hopping local pub, where we watched a cricket game that everyone was watching and tried to understand it. I won't go into it here, but it is like baseball only that they get runs, have innings and use a bat and ball. After that, I'm lost! Our B and B co- guests are from Ottawa, Canada and Lithuania