Today was a big day, as we visited the marvelous national
museum, Te Papa, and rode the enormous ferry, the Interislander, from
Wellington to Picton in the evening. We
had some angst once we arrived in Picton, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves!
Te Papa is a museum with stunning displays and beautiful
artistry. The foci of today’s trip was
on the geology of New Zealand, including the origin and potential danger of
earthquakes in New Zealand, and the Treaty of Waitangi, the document written by
British colonists and signed by Maori chiefs that amounted to the chiefs
signing-away their privileges to Queen Victoria in the 1800s. In addition to these two items, the students
learned about the means by which the early Maori (Polynesians that arrived
around 1000 A.D. in New Zealand) traveled the South Pacific and the types of
adaptations plants in New Zealand have. Several
hours in the museum was enough for the students and then it was out to do some
exploring of Wellington. The last few
hours on the North Island were spent shopping and grabbing a bite to eat…and
for me, the reading of the first week’s-worth of journal entries written by the
students.
In the evening, we caught the Interislander ferry to Picton,
which proved to be a relatively benign trip given the relatively high winds
that blew across the area this evening.
Unfortunately, our luck didn’t extend to our brief time in Picton. Allow me to elaborate…
After landing in Picton, I walked to the Rental Car New
Zealand site and learned that our rental van (only 339,000 km on it!) did not
have a trailer! So, our students spent
the brief car ride from the ferry terminal to the hostel with their 30-40lb
backpacks sitting on their laps! Then,
once we arrived at the hostel, we were without keys to get in! Another visitor to the hostel was kind enough
to tell me where our keys were hidden, but the surprises weren’t through
yet! Upon entering the hostel, our
students determined that one of the rooms, which was to house 4 men, was
already filled with 4 people!
Yikes! So, at 1am, our women
settled into their room, a room housing 3 of our men took two more who slept on
the floor, and myself and Dr. Moran slept on the floor so two of our male
students could have beds. It was a crazy
evening…
Our group in front of Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand.
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