It is also known as the windiest city in the world due to its
location. Here the winds of the “Roaring
Forties” (the earth’s latitude where Wellington is located), blow uninterrupted
from South America to New Zealand where they are funneled into this 14-mile
wide gap known as the Cook Strait. The
average speed of the wind (day or night) is about 16 mph. However, there is a bright side to all these
bad hair days – the wind drives the 62 turbines that generate the city’s
electricity and there is no air pollution – the wind blows it all away!
Wellington (Wellywood) is also the center for New Zealand’s film making
industry. Sir Peter Jackson, director of
the Lord of the Rings trilogy, lives
in Wellington. And Weta Workshop, which
did the special effects for Lord of the
Rings and the Hobbit, is also
located here.
After saying goodbye to Ben and a 3 hour flight from Sydney, we arrived
in Wellington about 3 PM. Customs and
immigration were a breeze – we were the only international flight at that time. By 4 we had Lindsay, our guide for New
Zealand, and were on our way to our hotel.
It was an absolutely gorgeous day in Wellington – sunny, in the low
70’s, and hardly any wind. It was too
bad my camera was in the luggage trailer – the harbor was spectacular. Our hotel, the Park Hotel Lambton Quay is
located near the center of Wellington about 3 blocks from the harbor. It shares the building with several other
offices and businesses, so the entrance to the hotel with a car or bus is on
the 3rd level, while the street access that we will use is on the
Ground level. Our first room was on the
11th floor but the air conditioning was not working well so they
moved us to the 6th floor.
At about 5:00 Lindsey had a short group meeting to go over the itinerary
for New Zealand. Because of the severe
flooding in the South Island, 2 bridges and a road are washed out. Unfortunately for us, they were the route we
were to travel on Day 5 from Hokitika to the Fox Glacier. So we will not be going to the glaciers. Instead we will bus back to Christchurch
where we will spend the night and then travel by bus down the center of the
South Island to Queenstown. As Ben would
have said, “No worries mate. She be
right.”
After our meeting Lindsay took us for a short orientation walk,
pointing out supermarkets, liquor stores, and ATMSs on our way to dinner down
at the harbor. We ate a nice little
restaurant called Dockside (both Bill and I had the steak) and Lindsay’s wife
Cath joined us for dinner. In addition
to being a tour guide, Lindsay is also a chef and his wife works in catering
and hospitality. She manages large
events and dinners, to include the dinner the Prime Minister hosted for Prince
William and Kate. After this OAT season
ends for him (he has 2 more trips after ours) he and Cath will be working on an
expedition ship that takes passengers to not only the Artcic and northern border
of Russia and but then down to Antarctica for two 30-day expeditions. Lindsay will be the head chef and Cath will
be the restaurant and bar manager.
On Monday, April Fool’s Day, Wellington showed its true colors. It was pouring rain and the wind was gusting
20-30 mph. Definitely not a good day for
hair or umbrellas. But like the true
troopers we were, we walked back to the harbor to the Te Wharewaka House (or
Canoe House) where we were met by Arika, and two other Maoris who greeted us the Maori
greeting – you shake hands with your right hand, put your left hand on the
other persons shoulder, then press your nose and forehead together while you
both breath in the breathe of life.
After this you are considered part of their tribe. Then the 3 Maoris welcomed us with words (in
their native language) and sang a song for us.
Then the leader of our group (Bill was volunteered to do this) thanked
them and say a few words. Then we had to
sing a song. The song we sang was one
they had never heard before (and neither had most of us). One of the ladies in the group said her
father taught it to her so she taught it to us:
My father killed a
kangaroo
And gave me the
grizzly part of the tail to chew
Now wasn’t that a heck
of a thing to do
To give me the grizzly
tail of the dead kangaroo
We each then had to introduce ourselves as the Maoris would: “Ca [your name] O Nor [where you lived] O.”
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| Our tribe's leader Bill giving a welcome from us |
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| Ariki our Guide |
Had the weather cooperated we would have gone out in one of their
canoes and learned how to row. Since the
weather was too bad, they lined us up into two teams of 2 lines of 4. Our guide then went over the commands that
the Maori who was controlling the boat (like a cox in our racing shells) would
give to make the boat move forward, backward, or stop, and also the command
that would signify that you were warriors (when he gave this command, the men
had to bulge their eyes, stick out their tongues and look mean; the women just
had to look stern and mean). After
several practice runs with a paddle, we had a contest between the two
teams. Each team had to follow the
directions of the boat captain, answering his commands with a resounding “Het”
and then give the enemy (the other team) our fiercest faces. The team I was on won!
From the Canoe House, we walked a short distance to the Te Papa, the
national museum of New Zealand. We will
be going there tomorrow with a guide, but since we had some time before lunch,
Lindsay thought we might be interested in seeing a new exhibit that had just
opened – “The Scale of Our War”, on the WWI battle of Gallipoli. The exhibit was designed and built by Peter
Jackson, the director of Lord of the Rings, and his movie company. The figures (built about 2 ½ times the normal
size) were so lifelike, right down to the hair on their faces and legs – it was
truly amazing! This exhibit tells the
story from the viewpoint of eight of its survivors.
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| Scene from the Gallipoli Exhibit |
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| Scene from Gallipoli Exhibit |
The Battle for Gallipoli was New Zealand’s and Australia’s entry into
World War I. In 1914, Turkey entered the
war on the side of Germany and this posed a threat to the shipping lanes of the
Suez Canal. The British devised a plan
to break through the Dardanelles Strait – a strategic waterway leading to the
Sea of Marmara and, via the Bosporus, the Black Sea, with naval power. When that plan failed, they sent Australian
and New Zealand soldiers to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey. On 25 April 1915, these soldiers started the
invasion of the beaches of Gallipoli. The
landings never came close to achieving their goals. Although the Allies managed to secure
footholds on the peninsula, the fighting quickly degenerated into trench
warfare (lasting through August), with the Australian New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC)
soldiers holding a tenuous perimeter against strong Ottoman attacks. The troops
endured heat, flies, the stench of unburied bodies, insufficient water, and
disease.
In August, the British launched another offensive in an attempt to
break the deadlock. The plan was for the
ANZACs to capture the high ground overlooking their sector, the Sari Bair
Range, while the British force landed further north at Sulva Bay. The ANZACs were able to capture one hill,
Chunuk Bair, but they were then relieved by two ill-trained British regiments
that were overrun by the Turks. The
British also failed to make any progress inland from Sulva Bay. By November, the British high command realized
that this campaign was a failure and finally ordered the evacuation of all
troops, including the ANZACs.
Gallipoli was a costly failure for the Allies: 44,000 Allied soldiers
died, including more than 8700 Australians and 2779 New Zealanders – about a
sixth of those who fought on the peninsula. Victory also came at a high price
for the Ottoman Empire, which lost 87,000 men during the campaign.
As we walked back for our lunch, Lindsay pointed out the statue of Kupe, his wife, and his navigator. (More on Kupe later on in this blog.) Lunch was back at the Te Wharewaka House, where Bill had a hangi
chicken meal. If it were a true hangi,
the chicken would have been cooked in the ground over hot rocks and covered
with rags and dirt. However, the
restaurant could not do this so it was slow-cooked. Bill said it was very good. I had a steak salad that was a little meat
and a whole lot of greens. They also
served us a very nice, clean tea – kawakaw tea.
It is made from the leaves of a native tree. It is also used by the Maori as an aid to
digestion and as an anti-inflammatory tonic.
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| Statue of Kupe |
After lunch the rain had ended (although there was light rain off and
on during the afternoon) so Lindsay took us to the cable car that transported
you to the top of the Botanical Gardens.
He then led us down one of the paths, explaining many of the native
plants that we saw there. They have one
tree in New Zealand, the Kauri, that is similar in size to our redwoods. In some cases the diameter of the tree was so
large that it took 20 people to encircle it.
Unfortunately, its wood was very strong, and both the Maori and the
European settlers cut many of these trees down to build homes and boats. Finally about 200 years ago, the government
realized the damage being done and that these trees were on the verge of
extinction. They banned any further
cutting of these trees, but as they are very slow growers, it will take many
years for the trees to fully recover.
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| Cable Car |
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| Lindsay, holding the silver fern the symbol of New Zealand |
At the end of our walk was an old cemetery. There was one statue of Richard Seddon, who
was the prime minister when women got the right to vote. Although he had been against women voting,
when he realized that over 2/3 of the country was for it, he took credit for
this achievement (it was really the efforts of Kate Sheppard that resulted in New Zealand being the first
country to allow women the right to vote in 1893! And she is now featured on the $10 note).
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| Statue of Prime Minister Seddon |
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| The Beehive |
From the Botanical Gardens we walked back down to Lambton Quay past the
Parliament Buildings. The most
recognizable building is the Beehive, where the prime minister and many of his
government ministers have their offices.
The building is a circular, copper-domed building which resembles a
beehive.
Although dinner was on our own tonight, we all went with Lindsay to the
Crab Shack, on the waterfront near where we had dinner last night. Although the rain had stopped, it had turned
cold and windy again. The food was
outstanding. Both Bill and I had the
Clam Chowder appetizer. It was “to die
for.” What a wonderful first real day in
New Zealand.
The next morning the sun was out and the sky was blue, except over the
mountains on the western side of the harbor.
Rain was expected later on in the late morning, but the wind was down
and we had a lovely walk back to the waterfront and the Te Papa Tongarewa
(“treasure box”) – New Zealand’s National Museum. Here we met our Maori guide, Rangimoana, who
was fabulous. He spoke perfect English
(perhaps because he spent 20 years in America teaching English at several
universities), but you could hear and feel the passion and love he has for his
native land and heritage – the Maoris.
As we walked through the exhibits, he gave us some insight into the
history of New Zealand and the Maoris. The
first sighting of New Zealand by anyone is attributed to Kuramarotini, wife of
Kupe, around 950 CE, who uttered the phrase “he ao, he ao, he ao tea, he ao tea
roa” – a cloud, a cloud, a white cloud, a long white cloud! The Maori word for New Zealand is derived
from that saying – Aotearoa (Land of the Long White Cloud). Kupe is a legendary figure in some of the
mythology and oral history of Maori tribes.
Rangimoana then showed us a bronze anchor – the first European object
left in New Zealand – from the French ship St. Jean Baptiste (1769) and one of
the cannons from Capt. Cook’s ship, The Endeavour, in 1770. There was also a waharoa or entranceway into a
Maori pa (fortified village.
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| Waharoa or entrance way |
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| Anchor from St. Jean Baptiste |
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| Cannon from The Endeavour |
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| Pounamu or Greenstone (Jade) |
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| Canoe used by the early Maoris when traveling to New Zealand |
He spoke a lot about the Maori’s love and respect for the land. There is a saying in the museum “He taonga no
te whenua me hoki ano kit e whenua” (what is given by the land should return to
the land). He explained that when a child
is born, the placenta and umbilical cord are buried in a special place in the
land. In the Maori language, the word
whenua means both land and placenta.
Returning the “whenua” (placenta) to the “whenua” (land) with the “pito”
(umbilical cord) establishes the link between the newborn and “papatuanuku”
(mother earth). This practice reinforces
the relationship between the newborn child and the land of their birth.
He also talked about some of the original Maori homes and buildings
that are in the Museum. Unfortunately
they were in the area where photography is not permitted. One of the buildings, Te Hau-ki-Turaga whare
whakaire (carved house) was built in the early 1840’s. Made with steel tools, it is the oldest
building of its kind that was made this way.
In 1867 it was confiscated by the British and its carvings were taken to
Wellington and reconstructed. Later it
was found to have been illegally confiscated and the museum has promised to
return it to its rightful owners in the next few years.
He was a wonderful guide and gave a very moving thank you to the United
States at the end of his tour. A lot of
us, including me, were close to tears.
Bill and I took the afternoon off – I needed to rest my knees and Bill
wanted to do some laundry. Some jobs you
can never get away from! At 6:20 we
joined Lindsay and 5 other members of our group for a Vietnamese dinner. The spring rolls were delicious and I had the
Pho with beef (a Vietnamese soup with noodles).
Very, very good!!! Bill had the
beef brisket that he said was also good. Back at the hotel it was time to pack up. We leave early tomorrow morning for Hokitika
on the west coast of the South Island.
