Day 17 February 18th Blustery Wellington

part of the harbour

exhibition entrance

A bright, warm but very blustery day in Wellington.  After breakfast we decided to visit the Te Papa national museum and view the popular Anzac exhibition which was about the part played by New Zealand forces in the Gallipoli landings.  We crossed the harbour and arrived by the opening time of 1000 but had to queue for at least an hour before getting to the exhibition entrance. 
 The exhibition was very good and showed very graphically the conditions and horrors the soldiers went through on that disastrous campaign.  It is obvious that current New Zealanders are very proud of the part their predecessors played in this.

chris and steph

We had arranged to meet Steph Moakes for lunch and this we did at one of the many excellent harbourside cafes.  We were able to eat outside and enjoy catching up with news - Steph is very excited about the progress being made on the house that she and Richard Perkins are building on St. Martin's.  We shall next see her on St. Martin's at the end of March.
 
 
 

Steph had to return to work and we decided to spend the afternoon on a drive round the coastal bays of Wellington.  It was really blustery and in places the waves were overtopping the road and our car had a few splashes. 
The drive was about 30km and we enjoyed the different shorelines.  We passed a bay where penguins nest but unfortunately did not see any.   We ended the drive and came back into the city and returned our car to the depot.  It was still blowing gale force and we held onto everything as we walked back to the hotel. 

We freshened up and went for a meal and chatted to a NZ couple who had come from the South Island for an Edinburgh Tattoo concert in a stadium in Wellington.  Ties with the UK are still very strong for a lot of New Zealanders.  The tattoo is sold out for 4 nights.