Meanderings

I wandered into a cyber cafe wotsit on a whim, so I don't have my book o' tales with me, but thought I'd give a quick update on my plans, and other thingies also.

Had breakfast at Midnight Espresso again (I had dinner last night at a chinese vegetarian place, which was great!! Think I'll be going there again!), and then wandered (the short way, not the tortuous way I went yesterday) to Te Papa. Spent 4 hours at Te Papa (my brain and my feet are arguing as to which of them is more knackered), then went to sit on the harbour side park. Winds of a million miles an hour greeted me as I came out of the museum. It was brilliant!! I have such a sore face from windburn but I loved every second of it!! Sat down in the park (after taking a million pictures of the harbour and surrounds) and grinned like a fool for a while. The water was green (yesterday it was more blue) and choppy and everything was absolutely beautiful.

I am so in love with Wellington, can you tell?

I then decided to go to the National Tattoo Museum, which sounded way too cool to pass up. It's tucked away, on the way to Porirua and the Hutt Valley, and was a good walk. Just thousands of pictures, photos, prints, paintings of tattoos and tattooed people. It concentrates on the Maori moki, but towards the back goes into all sorts of tattoos. However, the thing that got me most excited was a newspaper clipping about Richard Taylor (from the Weta Workshop), and his organising a fundraising night to support the museum, as they are not government supported and are having a hard time staying afloat. I didn't think anything could make me love Richard Taylor more than I already do, but that pretty much sealed it (I could hear his voice as I was reading quotes from him! He is so my favourite geek pretend boyfriend ever).

So yeah. If you know anyone who is going to Wellington at any time, direct them to the National Tattoo Museum. It's on Abel Smith Street (off Taranaki Street), costs five bucks to get in, and is totally cool and run by extremely dedicated and passionate people. I'll prob'ly end up going again when I go via Wellington on my way down to the South Island.

So I'm in Wellington for one more day, during which I will go to Paekakariki (for much the same reason as my mother went there, I suspect - so that I can say that I went there), and then I'm stopping off in Palmerston North, and then on to Taupo and Rotorua (though if I can swing a tour out of Taupo to Rotorua, including a concert and hangi, I will be more than happy to avoid staying in Rotorua altogether). I really really don't want to leave Wellington. Ever. Again. I am completely smitten with this city.

Anyway, off to check out some tours etc and make some plans for the next week or so. Then back to the hostel to get changed and maybe do some washing, then see a movie at the Embassy and then go for dinner.

I'm having a fucking excellent time.