Wet and Woolly in Welly

I'm still in Wellington for another day, but the weather's turned grey and drizzly. Yesterday I spent much of the day in the Te Papa, the national museum. It's a huge open building with something like 6 floors of exhibits and still free to the public! There was a large natural history part with lots on tectonics and the unique species to New Zealand, like the extinct Moa and the the Tautara. Then there was lots on the different experience of settlement of the country. But maybe my favorite exhibit was one on New Zealand in the 70's. I've been reading The Penguin History of New Zealand and had just been reading about the period, but seeing all the clothes, furniture, toys and such was pretty cool.

In the afternoon I ducked into a brew pub and got talking to the Swedish guy who had emigrated to NZ. He was an Oracle developer who had just quit is new job to go back to his old, so was hanging at the bar waiting for friends to watch the Wellington/Christchurch rugby game. I ended up staying and watching the game and hanging out with his group of friends. It turned into a really good evening and quite good to just chat with locals. Good people. Wellington seems to really have an active night-life and a lot of the bars would not at all be out of place in SF.

This morning I rode the cable car up the hill and walked down into town. It's about time to get some lunch and then I was thinking about heading out to the zoo for the chance to see some NZ wildlife it would almost be impossible to see in the bush.