I have to preface day 4's report with the fact that apparently we
didn't take any pictures at all this day. I can't believe that we
took zero pictures for a whole day, but I couldn't find any in my
digital stack of photos. I even checked Tyler's camera, but he
didn't have any either, so I had to find a couple of pics from the web.
We didn't have much planned for today and the weather wasn't looking
good, so we decided we'd head straight to Wellington from National Park
Village. It was about a 4 and a half hour drive, so
we go there a little after our lunch stop at McDonalds. We had
poured over the guidebooks the night before and decided that we wanted
to see the Te Papa museum, so that was our first stop when we arrived
in Wellington. Te Papa is the national museum of New
Zealand. It is kind of like New Zealand's version of the
Smithsonian. It has several floors and numerous different types
of exhibits. It really is a good choice to visit for everyone. There
were exhibits that were really good for kids and then ones that were
good for adults. One of my favorites was their Colossal
Squid. I believe it is the only complete one on display in the
world.
Te Papa's Giant Squid
We spent a bunch of time at the animal exhibits, as well as the
kids areas. They also have a really cool Maori exhibit which
everyone enjoyed.
After spending a couple of hours in Te Papa, we stopped briefly at a
grocery store to stock on some more snacks, breakfast food, and
American ketchup.
We checked into our hotel
for the night. The Capital View Motor Inn was probably our least
favorite hotel in New Zealand. There wasn't anything wrong with
it, but it just felt so bland and had no personality like most of the
hotels we stayed in. It did fit the bill in that it was
affordable, close to where we wanted to be in Wellington, and it had
free parking. We spent $140NZ for us and $125NZ for my parents
for the night.
We spent a little bit of time relaxing in the hotel and then walked
down to Cuba street for dinner. Cuba street reminds me a lot of
State street in Madison. It had tons of eclectic restaurants and
shops. We had read about a fish and chips place in the Lonely
Planet book that was supposed to be very good. We ordered fish
and it was very good. We got chicken for Tyler as usual and tried
to convince him to try the fish. He finally agreed to try my
mom's fish and really liked it. From that day on, he had fish and
chips at least once a day until the end of the trip. Today, it is
one of his favorite meals. Now that's some good fish and chips!
It was an early night, since we had to get up early to get to the morning ferry to the south island.
Continue to Day 5
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