Vacationing in New Zealand Part I: Wellington!

As I’m writing this, I am recovering from my lovely two-week teaching recess that I had at my University. The break honestly snuck up on me, and I can’t believe that I’m already halfway through my abroad experience! However, before I fall down that spiral, I have a lot of gems to share from my break! For the first half of the break, I gathered some friends and headed to the nation’s capital, Wellington, for a fun four-day adventure.And my, what an adventure we had.

I decided that we take a scenic train down to Wellington, which gave us an eight-hour trip filled with views of epic ravines, emerald fields, and little lambs frolicking around (I’m being very dramatic but it was really cool). I had realized that three nights and four days wasn’t the most time to explore all of Wellington, but one of my favorite places we stopped by was the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa.

Jaw. Dropping.

I have been to a couple of museums in my life, but this one was absolutely stunning. First of all, the free admission automatically made it so much better, but the exhibits were everything. From a beautiful (and kind of sad) nature exhibit, a harrowing (and extremely sad) war memorial exhibit, and an elegant art space, this museum seemed to have everything. The curation of each exhibition was just undeniably impressive. It also helped that the museum was next to a pier, so we took a fun stroll outside and really immersed ourselves in that hairstyle-altering wind. As a side gem, we witnessed a performer covered in a bunch of foliage playing the saxophone in the wind. I mean, how much more majestic can you get? Now begins the fun, complicated bit of the trip. I had planned for us to go to Martinborough, a town sort of close to Wellington, for the day. The problem was that we could only get there by train, and the earliest train that would get us there on time for our booking was at 8 a.m. We all woke up on time, but what can I say? We’re college kids, and being punctual is not always going to be our strong suit. We missed our bus to the station, got some rideshares, and hoped that the train would be delayed. As you can assume, it was not delayed. When I tell you that I felt like I was in a movie in the following moments, you must believe me. We saw the train in front of our eyes. My friend was about to hop on, but we were still waiting for our two other friends. A staff member walked by us and sternly told us to either get on or get off. It was now or never (again, so dramatic). We did not get on that train. Long story short, it was really fine in the end. We eventually got to Martinborough and to our booking on time, it just took a couple of breathers to get there. I’m usually optimistic, but my optimism took me a long way on that trip for sure. We got the train ride back, so all’s well that ended well.

The rest of the trip went by smoothly, and I really wish I could show you my camera roll because there are so many moments to go through. However, as we ended off this trip, you could probably assume we took the train back. We did not do that. Call it traveling on a budget, or maybe poor planning, but we took a 9-hour bus ride back. From 7 p.m. to 4 a.m. I told you we had an adventure. Words can't really describe the range of emotions I felt on that humbling bus ride, but one thing is for certain: One watch-through of RRR, Moana, and whole listen-through of the new Hozier album somehow got me through those 9 hours. There are so many other little details I could delve into from that trip, but that would make this blog pages upon pages. But from the astonishing views on top of Mount Victoria to the delicious eats on Cuba Street, it is safe to say that Wellington definitely showed us a good time. With love and Shapes crackers, Raeva :)