To The Left, To The Left!

Look now to your left.  No, not as in right next to you to the left, and not everything you own in a box to the left.  To the left of what you are reading right now, on your screen, you'll see a little side bar.  UPDATE: I figured out how to make a "Links" category, so under the word "Links", you'll see a link to a Picasa Photo album.  Said album has a TON of pictures from our entire trip, categorized by location, for your viewing pleasure.  Take a minute and check out our skilled camera work on Mai's sweet SLR camera.  Booyakasha!

And if you can't figure out where it is to the left, just click here.

Haha, just kidding.  Click here.

I Love It When You Call Me Te Papa

The Te Papa Museum = Sweet As.  

Located on the waterfront (and also positioned on stabilizers to keep it from shaking during an earthquake) Te Papa means "Our Place" in Maori and it felt like our place.  We owned the museum in 3 hours.  So a few of the highlights: 

GIANT SQUID- New Zealand is home of one of the few or the only (unclear) giant squids on display.  This deep sea creature is disgusting.  It has a beak like a parrot (I know you're probably gagging already, because I was).  The squid has fully rotating suckers that have small hooks on them, a killing machine.  It's eye is the size of a soccer ball.  The Squid, however, like every giant squid that has been found, was female.  She hooked on to a deep-fishing boat's line and held on as it was cranked up (she is not the brightest squid).  

So we watched the video of this giant squid, the color of a Ruby Grapefruit, being pulled up from the ocean with it's long tentacles and in a way, it was beautiful.  Now it's lying in some sort of preserving jelly under a glass case for viewers to admire.

Yum. 

Te Papa also houses numerous Maori carvings, wakas and building representations.  It is the sole place to have a cultural experience from a learned perspective as this is the main and, from what we understand, the only real museum in New Zealand.  

A sailor went to sea sea sea to see what he could see see see...

In addition to the traditional Maori artifacts, there were modern sculptures as well as the "Black Hole". The "Black Hole" is a giant black carpeted circle at the center of the Te Papa.  The following pictures display how we had fun with this one:

Brian and I, being children at heart, enjoyed the interactive aspects of the museum. Yes, we watched the 3-D show of the Squid being pulled up from the ocean and yes we stood in an exhibit house that shook to represent an earthquake as well as played with many other touch screen games... so as you can imagine, we had fun.

One interactive piece stands out most for both of us.  This piece separated different parts of a particular song and allowed the viewer to play parts of the song that pleased them, or all parts. In order to play the elements of the song, one only needed to place their hand over a circle, triggering a sensor that started the music.  Fat Freddy's Drop, "Roady" was our personal favorite. 

Go DJ!  That's my DJ!

The final aspect that I will elaborate on is the "myspace" like room.  In the room, there were multiple large screens running along one wall. Using a large white controller, you could click on an image on the screen and move it around. At first glance, this seems kind of lame until you realize that you can take a picture of yourself, upload it to the main screen and play with it! Being the narcissists that we are... Brian and I took a few photos and short videos of ourselves. FUN!

Narcissism at its best.

After a day of fun, we had some Mexican tacos that were pretty okay. Have we mentioned how much we MISS the burritos from the Mission?!

Taking advantage of the Te Papa's stage.

Vassar in New Zealand!

Thursday, we met up with fellow Vassar Alum, Camille!  We had been in contact with her since we even thought of the idea to come here, so it was a pleasure to finally meet her.  She took us to a sort of hidden area that housed a hole-in-the-wall, yet masterpiece of a Malaysian Restaurant.  We chatted over some delicious dishes (curry soup, a noodle dish) accompanied with the local favorite (though Australian) Ginger Beer. 

Camille works in the public health sector for the New Zealand government.  She has been in New Zealand for four years now and is a legal resident.  Information we learned from her:

• New Zealand is a small country thus everyone gossips. if you're working a particular field, such as the health field, you are more than likely going to come across the same people multiple times in your life-- so don't step on any toes
• There's about 25% of the population that is out of the country at a given time- traveling.  Although it is expensive for a New Zealander to travel the world, they don't view it as an option rather they view traveling as an essential life experience. 
• Because healthcare is free, kiwis don't receive the higher end medicines although if they genuinely want to spend the money, they can often order their medicine through Oz. 
• Healthcare is also taken less seriously.  People generally don't go to doctors anytime they get a sniffle. They also wait for long periods of time to see specialists such as gynecologists without complaint. (is this in America's future? doubtful)
• Abortion in this country is common and free. There is a check process where the woman intending to receive an abortion must see various counselors to ensure that she has not rushed her decision.  If the doctors/counselors feel that the woman is not getting an abortion for the "right reasons", she may be denied. The woman is also offered counseling after the abortion process is complete.  For a non-resident, an abortion costs around 850 kiwi dollars.
• Abortions are common because sexual practices in this country are apparently "loose".  Camille was told by a friend that she should "sleep around until she finds a person she wants to see again"!  (New Zealand has a high rate of STDs such as the "CLAP") Thus Durex uses New Zealand as its test population for all of its new products. crazy!
• In New Zealand, workers must be given 4 weeks of paid vacation every year.  If an individual is injured at work or sick, the ACC covers everything.  For example, if they are in a car accident, the individual will be paid their salary as well as sent a nanny to care for their children and clean their homes.  Their job must also remain open for them during this period.  The downside is, from the American point of view, if some idiot slams into your vehicle- you are not allowed to sue. LET ME REPEAT: NO SUING. 

We also learned that Wellington is on a fault and I guess any minute now the city can crumble.  Sweet.  The honeycomb (New Zealand's parliament) is built on springs so in case the city falls, at least Parliament can still be in session. 

So after our meal with Camille and our lesson about New Zealand life, we had some of the best gelato I have EVER HAD from Kaffee Eis (pronounced "caffe ice"... clever, huh?). There are a couple flavors we would suggest: Coconut and Biscotti. 

Wellington = San Francisco

During our travels, we heard a lot of things about Wellington: how it is rich with culture, how it is a beautiful city, how much better it is than Auckland.  All these things are quite true.  There was one other description that is hinted at in this post's title: the comparison of Wellington to San Francisco.  Considering we stopped in the Bay Area on our way over here (and the fact that I lived there for a summer), we feel it is out duty to settle once and for all the age old question: how similar is Wellington to San Francisco?

Let's start with the weather.  San Francisco is often warm and sunny with little to no humidity.  However, it is better known by the Mark Twain description: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."  It's true that the city, surrounded on three sides by water, is subject to cool rain, gusts of wind, and heavy fog, but it's evident that Mr. Twain never lived in the North East or the northern Mid West from December to February.  Wellington is similar in that is subject to crappy weather in the summer time, plagued with clouds and rain that are about as unpredictable as the San Francisco fog, though there is swimming through such dense fog here.  When there are clear skies, both cities enjoy similar, comfortable weather.

How about structure?  Well both cities are major sea ports, with shipping equipment and docks lining the waterfront.  That being said, there isn't a residential beach to speak too enthusiastically about in either place.  They both lie near or on major fault lines, meaning the threat for earthquakes is relatively present and therefore, precautions are taken during construction.  This also accounts for the hills on which the city is situated, although Wellington's hills are not quite as drastic (from what we've seen) as the hills in San Fran, such as Lombard Street.  Both cities have webs of cables and wires hanging in the air over the street that allow buses to connect to and run off the electricity.  Seeing this, along with Wellington's famous cable car, gave us the eerie feeling that we had in fact returned to the states.

Of course, there are differences: the culture, the size, the people, etc.  Instead of AT&T Park for baseball (home of the Giants) and Candlestick Park for American football (home of the NFL 49ers), Wellington has Westpac Stadium and TSB Bank Arena, housing a variety of sports from Rugby (Wellington Hurricanes) to football (soccer for all you Americans, Wellington Phoenix) to cricket (which I have learned and now understand).  But the similarities are amazingly present (I mean, isn't it comforting to know that corporate sponsorship is global?)  Even the Mount Victoria, situated to Wellington City Center's east, although not separated by water, is basically Wellington's Oakland, dotted with houses all the way up to the very tip.  We took a trip to the top of Mt. Victoria and learned a few fun facts, one of which was that the airport, situated between Evans Bay and Lyall Bay, sits on reclaimed land from an earthquake.  Crazy.

Welcome To Wellington: 3 Man & Aioli Sauce

Our first experience in Wellington came around 8:00pm on Sunday, after an entire day of riding on a bus.  We were welcomed by huge gusts of cold wind, one after another, as we unloaded our things.  Not the warmest welcome.

We made the decision that Monday night would be a party night, after making friends with some traveling Canadians and their UK buddies.  After a delightful game of 3-man, through which I was often the 3-man and drank most of my bottle of wine, we rounded up the troops and headed out for our first night out in Wellington.  There really isn't much else to write about the night, considering it was a Monday and we were pretty much the only ones out.

"Inspiring Words" hosted by NZ Post

Tuesday, Mai and I met up with a guy I contacted through Wellington volleyball named Earl.  He offered to put us up for a few nights at his place and also informed us that we'd be playing volleyball the following night.  We did so, and although the volleyball was indoor 6's, it was pretty good quality and we had a fairly good time. 


Mai's two cents: Volleyball was pretty good except playing with old men means two things: 1. old men think they're AWESOME even when they are only barely scraping the skills of an average player. 
2. old men ALWAYS think they are better volleyball players than women... i.e. old men love to jump in front of me.


Thus, playing volleyball with old men means I have to work on my "Bean" skills: deep breathing and patience. 

A local Wellington bookstore.

Wednesday nights in Wellington is Student Night at the local bars.  "What does that mean?" you might ask.  Well, with the legal drinking age at 18 years old, it meant that everyone 18 and older was in one of the copious number of bars on Courtenay Place while those who wished they were 18 drank out of brown paper bags and merrily ran a much on the sidewalks of Courtenay place.  We watched the latter group as we munched on some Burger Fuel fries, served with delicious aioli sauce (we NEED this at home, so good).


Mai's two cents again:  Aioli sauce is "bomb", as Emma would say.  Student Night is also one of the few times I felt like an old prude.  If I had enough sweaters, pants and shoes, I would have tried to dress the 15-16 year old girls wearing "tube tops" as dresses and taken off their 4-5 inch heels because looking like a prostitute and stumbling around on stilts really shouldn't be a style.  Although I whole heartedly enjoyed the people watching, I couldn't help but worry about the potential pneumonia epidemic that is bound to occur amongst these teens as well as continually replay the famous question, "It's 10:00 do you know where your children are?". The answer is "no" because no parent in their right mind would allow their 15 year old to wander Courtenay Place plastered, on stilts and barely dressed :) 


But if you're a people watcher, like Brian and I are.. Wednesday nights is definitely the night.