Wellington Adventure!
This past weekend I left the mainland (South Island…although this is subject of much debate from North Islanders!) and headed to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, on the southern part of the North Island. I went with the other 4 scholars from Christchurch (Jesse from Kelowna, BC, Andrea from Germany, Daisy from upstate New York and Glen from Michigan) and our counselor Valda. We left Christchurch at 5am (my earliest start yet in New Zealand) and flew to Wellington.
There, we met with the other 9 scholars who are studying in New Zealand, from Dunedin, Wellington, and Auckland. All of the others were post-graduate students of some sort (Masters or PhD)…I was the only undergrad! It was awesome though- a really intelligent and well traveled group. From working in the Peacecorps in South Africa to teaching in Tanzania and mountaineering in Alaska, the experiences that the group had had made for some interesting conversation!
The conference was held in a lawyers’ office on the 13th floor of a downtown Wellington office building with an amazing view of the harbour and surrounding mountains. We had sessions on Rotary and its role in New Zealand, tertiary education in the Pacific, our roles and responsibilities as scholars, as well as breakout sessions on ideas for community service projects, adjusting to life here, etc. We also ate…a lot! Morning tea complete with biscuits, muffins, fruit and cookies, then lunch two hours later, then afternoon tea, then dinner, and finally tea before bed! Kiwis eat non-stop! The food was awesome though, it was completely catered and very yummy!
Saturday afternoon we had a tour of the New Zealand Parliament building, nicknamed the “beehive” for its obvious beehive structure. The government recently spent $4M adding hundreds of base isolators to the foundation that will supposedly absorb the movement of an earthquake up to 7.5 on the Richter scale. As a result, the building essentially floats on these metal and rubber disks and is no longer attached to the foundation…pretty cool! Although I think someone should have told them not to build the Parliament in the dead centre of a fault line!
We had most of Sunday afternoon free to explore the city. A group of us walked around downtown and then headed over to the National Museum, Te Papa (Our Place in Maori). It was an awesome museum completely dedicated to all aspects of New Zealand history, the wool industry, etc. Outside of the museum were photos from the “Earth from Above” exhibit that travels around the world. I saw it in Montreal a few years ago but there were new pictures I hadn’t seen before. One of East New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina showing just the rooftops was a pretty neat perspective.
We stayed in a youth hostel downtown which was great- I shared a room with Daisy and Andrea from Christchurch. Unfortunately Andrea was the only one smart enough to bring a towel with her! Daisy and I had to be resourceful and use extra sheets to dry off! We were well prepared for a toga party…
Anyway, enough for now- too much reading and studying to do!
Cheers-
s.
PS- I tried to post pictures here but something isn't working, I'll try to get them up in the next few days!
There, we met with the other 9 scholars who are studying in New Zealand, from Dunedin, Wellington, and Auckland. All of the others were post-graduate students of some sort (Masters or PhD)…I was the only undergrad! It was awesome though- a really intelligent and well traveled group. From working in the Peacecorps in South Africa to teaching in Tanzania and mountaineering in Alaska, the experiences that the group had had made for some interesting conversation!
The conference was held in a lawyers’ office on the 13th floor of a downtown Wellington office building with an amazing view of the harbour and surrounding mountains. We had sessions on Rotary and its role in New Zealand, tertiary education in the Pacific, our roles and responsibilities as scholars, as well as breakout sessions on ideas for community service projects, adjusting to life here, etc. We also ate…a lot! Morning tea complete with biscuits, muffins, fruit and cookies, then lunch two hours later, then afternoon tea, then dinner, and finally tea before bed! Kiwis eat non-stop! The food was awesome though, it was completely catered and very yummy!
Saturday afternoon we had a tour of the New Zealand Parliament building, nicknamed the “beehive” for its obvious beehive structure. The government recently spent $4M adding hundreds of base isolators to the foundation that will supposedly absorb the movement of an earthquake up to 7.5 on the Richter scale. As a result, the building essentially floats on these metal and rubber disks and is no longer attached to the foundation…pretty cool! Although I think someone should have told them not to build the Parliament in the dead centre of a fault line!
We had most of Sunday afternoon free to explore the city. A group of us walked around downtown and then headed over to the National Museum, Te Papa (Our Place in Maori). It was an awesome museum completely dedicated to all aspects of New Zealand history, the wool industry, etc. Outside of the museum were photos from the “Earth from Above” exhibit that travels around the world. I saw it in Montreal a few years ago but there were new pictures I hadn’t seen before. One of East New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina showing just the rooftops was a pretty neat perspective.
We stayed in a youth hostel downtown which was great- I shared a room with Daisy and Andrea from Christchurch. Unfortunately Andrea was the only one smart enough to bring a towel with her! Daisy and I had to be resourceful and use extra sheets to dry off! We were well prepared for a toga party…
Anyway, enough for now- too much reading and studying to do!
Cheers-
s.
PS- I tried to post pictures here but something isn't working, I'll try to get them up in the next few days!
posted by steph at 3/21/2006 08:38:00 PM
2 Comments:
hi steph-jen passed on your blog to me so i read it, so if i'm reading it i'm sure there must be tons of other people who do. it must be lovely there. hamilton ontario is not so lovely at the moment-or ever!
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