Child of the Planet

It's all about the free Wifi This is New Zealand's premier museum and the squat building sitting on the water front, pulls off the TARDIS trick of seeming bigger on the inside then the outside. I've discovered, while chatting to locals, that Te Papa is considered to be an ugly edifice. While the exterior might be polarising, the interior is dark and moody, and detailed with Maori design work. Lot's of interactive displays spice up the assorted historical and scientific artifacts dragged up from the vaults and locked away in glass cases. Great little Art gallery filled with local art. That's it in the background Free Wifi is available and I saw one German couple had taken over a corner of an alcove with laptops, plugged via exotic adaptors into a Kiwi powerboard, which was plugged into the museum wall. Natural sciences are given a monster movie edge, with giant squid locked in a resin sarcophagus, a skeleton of a baby blue whale...

This walk is located on the coast outside of Wellington city so there was a half hour train trip before we got to do any trekking. I got an opportunity to to grab a coffee from a van on the side of the road before we set off walking the trail , snaking along the bank of the Waikanae river. Our party soon split into turtle and hare groups with a few stragglers in between. We crossed the river on a foot bridge and followed the track down into the managed wetlands of the  Waikanae Estuary Scientific Reserve, which were cris-crossed with raised foot paths. Emerging from the scrub on to the beach we headed for Paekakariki, We had a short break in Paraparaumu to have lunch and scoff Kapiti Island ice creams (the local gourmet stuff). The tide waits for no man One of our party started to get phone calls from a couple of stragglers who had got a bit distracted with their conversation and didn't notice the group they were following, crossing over the foot bridge....

The muzac is phycosis inducing http://www.louisvuitton.com/front/#/eng_US/Collections/Women/Travel/stories/The-Art-of-packing

I really like small theaters, and the BATS ( Bane and Austin Touring Society ) is a brillent little venue right in the middle of Wellington. I hear from my young cousins that local Kiwi soapy stars sometimes appear in the BATS manning the ticket counter.The entrance looks like it was originally a shop front, and is just down the road a bit from Pete Jackson's Embassy cinema (I hear that PJ stepped in to rescue the BATS when they fell onto hard times recently). The tiny theater is wonderfully shambolic includng a cozy bar where one can get a drink, and take it in with you to the theater. While it's nice to not have to empty your glass before enjoying the performance, unfortunately on the night we were there, someone lost control of an empty. The poor actors valiantly tried to ignore the bottle as it clunked about on the floor. Into the Uncanny Valley Alice in physics land This is the second time I've experienced a production at the BATS. First time...

Discovered a new cider while out in Wellington last night. Nice big bottle! Great label which ordinarily would indicate sub standard contents, but in this case the pretty wrapping was matched by a very quaff-able drink. Fruity taste with a bit of colour. kjdbrewing.co.nz Review... www.stuff.co.nz/Cider-on-comeback Other bits... its-becoming-cider-world.html politics-of-cider

Eggs laid almost on the path Saturday morning I was woken by the door to the bedroom shaking in it's frame. Gradually the vibrations spread through the whole room. I don't ever remember experiencing an earthquake before and I was struck by the noise. I thought that the 'all encompassing rumbling tone' that I've heard at the movies was an Hollywood affectation. I was lying warm and comfy under the covers thinking 'I don't want to get out of bed so I'll just see how bad it gets'. If the coffee doesn't stimulate enough! As the vibrations continued I started to formulate a plan for what I was going to do if I decided that it was worthwhile getting up. Possibly bits of plaster falling from the roof would have been a decent indicator? Makara beach is a twenty minutes from the Wellington CBD. The small village sitting on the coast is typified by it's cafe. Weathered and grey, but eventually humming with activity. Our group arr...

Summer day in Wellington and I discovered that a new diving platform has been installed in the wharfs surrounding the harbour. These are a series of photos of people enjoying the rush of air and the stinging slap of the waters surface...