Day 329: Te Papa, New Zealand’s National Museum — Errands on Last Full Day in Wellington
Usual routine this morning – breakfast and school. Willa’s working on a presentation about her year that she’ll share with classmates in January. We decided to choose categories of stuff we’ve seen/experienced, and pick a few examples of each (photos, stories, drawings, facts) to share how life around the world looks/is different. The categories she’s going with are food, houses, animals, landscapes and clothing. It’s been a fun “looking back” exercise to brainstorm and “research” each.
The Wellington waterfront was lively on this sunny, warm Saturday afternoon. It was a local crowd — very few tourists, if any. We saw a traveling “Extravaganza” — a caravan of campers that goes from town to town in New Zealand performing family circus acts, selling hand-sewn skirts and hemp pants, hosting kiddie rides, etc. Nothing particularly interesting, just fun to watch it all and think…this is someone’s life. You know?
After lunch we walked along the waterfront to check out a Saturday market (underwhelming) and got some food. Teddy peeled off to see about a haircut (unsuccessful mission) and stayed gone, enjoying a few hours on his own while Willa, James and I went to see the National Museum of New Zealand aka Te Papa.
I was going more out of obligation and on the understanding that there was some kids’ stuff, and we were running out of things to do in Wellington (not sure we needed to stay in this city so long).
But man, it was awesome.
It’s an art, history and nature/science museum all rolled into one. All big, beautiful, light, airy, informative, clever, interactive, catering to all ages and interests…and free!
Really impressive. Teddy joined us there to swap duties — I peeled off to do some kid stealthy Christmas shopping — and all told, the kids stayed for about 2.5 hours.
Highly recommend.
The rest of the day saw playgrounds, more walking, I went to the Wellington museum to check it out, watched people jumping off high ledges into the water, did some Christmas shopping, etc. Met back up around 5 for more playground and a drink.
They made this 
I’d heard about “whitebait fritters” and ordered one from a food stand, not realizing until it was on the griddle that it was literally my worst nightmare. Dozens of whole slimy fish grilled in eggs yolk. GROSS! Ate some — had to try it — and then tossed it. Eek.
We capped with dinner in the neighborhood, where we went around the table and named out top three highlights of the North Island. Here they were:
James:
- The golf cart at the Bay of Islands house
- Hanging out with Jeff and Pete in Auckland
- White-water rafting
Willa:
- The golf cart
- White-water rafting
- Dinner at Sage (with Lobsy in Bay of Islands, winery with a view)
Teddy:
- The Bay of Islands house
- Sailing with Dave on “She’s a Lady” in Bay of Islands
- White-water rafting
Me:
- Sheep World
- Hanging with Jeff and Pete
- The house in Taupo
On the walk home we stood at a skatepark and watched the skaters for a while.
MISC:
If you’ve been entertained by the QT Wellington hotel incompetence stories, then we’ve got a few more for you:
- Tonight as the kids were showering we realized housekeeping never gave us shampoo, etc. and didn’t replace towels. Dialed the “housekeeping” button on the phone but it didn’t work. Turns out none of the custom phone buttons did.
- They delivered us a complimentary cheese platter three days ago, I guess because we had to move rooms. We’ve never touched it, yet three days later it’s still on the counter. Today I finally left a note that said “Please remove cheese.”
- None of these things would matter on their own, it’s just when all added up, they’ve started to be so funny. We’ve stayed in 70+ hotels this year, and not seen anything quite like it.
This stay has felt long. People always ask: “Aren’t you exhausted?” If anything it might be the opposite. Now when we settle somewhere that isn’t stimulating — even for five measly days — we’re tapping our wrists asking, “Isn’t it time to move on?”
We’re working on our answer to the ubiquitous “What was your favorite stop??” question. I tried to argue that the question is kind of lazy on the part of the asker, but Teddy’s response is that people don’t *really* care and it’s just the easiest way to make casual conversation with us.
I liked how Greg Waldorf asked the kids: “What are your three clearest memories of the year?” What a great question.
“Favorite stop” is so hard because in a year of travel/vacation, every place has been pretty effing awesome. Like, every day. It’d be one thing if we took five cool trips in the year and someone said, “Which was the best?” But we are living a 365-day awesome existence, so asking which place was “the best” or “our favorite” is just way too broad.
Here are some alternative questions that we’re working on being able to answer:
- What are the stops that future-you will picture when you close your eyes and seek to re-feel the emotional highs of the year?
- Where will you proactively go back because you loved it so much?
- Which stops could you see yourself living in for 6 months?
- Which stops could you see yourself living in for two years?
- Where were you happiest?
