Midsemester Break I: Wellington!

Midsemester break – first stop, Wellington!

The harbor! And perfect weather. (:

We took the bus down to Wellington Friday night, and met up with some friends who were taking a ferry to the South island the following morning.

i-max bus seats!

Midsemester break, cheers!

The first night we stayed in a hostel called Base Wellington – it was pretty nice, we didn’t spend much time there. since we headed the next morning to head to move our stuff to Lodge in the City.

Loved this sign. Hahaha.

Tipping the dishwasher. Always key. :D

Ate breakfast (oatmeal/porridge with apples, yum!), washed our dishes, and headed out.

All backpack-ed and ready to go!

I got really excited about this store – Brooklyn Bread & Bagels! Reppin'.

Passed some neat graffiti.

A giant cat made out of hands!

Zombie attack!

After we dropped off our things, we headed back out – to the waterfront! We had been a few weeks before (except for Wisco!), and it was as beautiful as ever.

Goofballs.

Taking pictures!

(:

And in good form, we took lots and lots of pictures. (:

Ducks!

The water was so clear. (:

Including a whole bunch of the view in Wisco’s especially reflective sunglasses!

We were making him so self conscious, haha. But you can see me and Mauren in his sunglasses!

... and the water!

Then we headed into Te Papa for a quick run around the museum.

Existential pigeons.

Nice colors and reflections.

Haha, Te Papa made a pun. :P

And took a nice sun nap in a sandbox (pebbles, really).

Ahhhh. So zen.

Sunshine!

Robert being a dinosaur! (there were buried "dinosaur bones" in the sandbox)

On our way out, we stopped for some coffee, which naturally, inspired the males in the group to strip to their boxers and jump into the freezing cold water off a small building. Of course.

Mauren. Note the fact that she is warm, dry, and projects a sense of sanity.

Contrast: Wisco. Insane boy! Ahhhhh!

Flying. (:

Proof. Brrrrr.

Robert did it too. Excellent photobomb, Mauren.

We are so nice and dry. (:

(okaaay, so there were other people doing it too. but they were all pretty crazy.)

Cold and soggy, but happy (I'm sure the coffee helped). (:

We wandered a bit more, then stopped into a crafts market, which was really neat! There were tons of stands selling all kinds of handmade jewelry and clothes, and traditional jade and bone carvings. Also lots of hipsters. Fun! And a live band and delicious smelling food, mmmm.

We wandered around the city a bit more, then regrouped at our hostel… and wandered some more!

The sky. (:

Like this one.

Window into the city.

We came across a neat area by the waterfront that we hadn’t seen before built to look like a wooden ship, and a pyramid… and some other random things on sticks… yeah, not really sure what it was all about, haha. Still fun to walk around though!

More water!

The water was really pretty as the sun began to set.

We also found a neat skate park! Seems to be a pretty popular thing here.

Looking grunge.

Look at all these skater punks! :D

Then we picked up some groceries, headed back to the hostel, and got cooking! Day 1 of our two week pasta-fest! Yum.

Pasta time!

Ready for nomtown.

We were staying in a 6 person room at this hostel, so we had two roommates – who turned out to be two really interesting German guys who had been traveling around the world picking up temporary jobs (mostly fruit picking, sweet!).

The whole crew, up on the roof!

We also met our neighbors in the room next to ours – a group of Kiwis in Wellington to celebrate an 18th birthday (the legal drinking age here – so a pretty big one). They were completely insane, but really nice and fun. We hung out with them for a good part of the night.

Ahhhhhh! Vegetables everywhere!!

The following morning, we got up bright and early to head over to the Sunday market, for fruits and veggies galore!

We dropped our plunder back off at the hostel, and then set out on the day’s adventures – walking/hiking to the Mt. Victoria lookout!

At the base of the hike was a cool bus tunnel that reminded me and Mauren of the tunnel/hallway in Spirited Away. The boys got excited about it too because they could yell down it. Boys.

LETS MAKE LOUD NOISES!

Magic!

We passed through a playground, and a water spill later… we were off on our way!

Hahahaha.

:D

The hike was really beautiful, there were tons of fantastic trees (really neat evergreens with cones growing all over the trunks… this seemed crazy to me).

Great bark.

So many trunks!

Little hobbit children! No clue where they came from, actually...

Swirly tree.

Views of the city.

:D

In addition to the lookout, the hike was also along where a scene from Lord of the Rings had been filmed – Hobbit’s Hideaway!

To Hobbit's Hideaway!

Adorable little cone things. :D

(:

We made our way up towards the top… bring on the amazing views!

Getting there...

Tada... Wellington!

We stopped at the signal station for some photos...

What a view!

:D

Teeny tiny houses!

The harbor.

More hillside.

Then we made our way to the lookout/a pagoda thing to take a break for lunch - some pretty awesome peanut butter banana sandwiches!

Pretty wildflowers.

It's sandwich time!

Multitasking.

Peanut butter nutella banana goodness.

Balanced a banana peel! I was pretty proud of this.

Treeeeeees.

Clouds rolling in... better get moving!

Then it was hiking back down, back to the hostel (more pasta for dinner, what up!), and getting ready for our early morning bus, to Napier!

Pinecones!

As groggy as we all were at 6 AM, the early morning views on the way to the bus were pretty lovely. (:

The sleepy crew.

Downtown in the morning. Pretty. (:

Headed to the waterfront.

Glimpse of sunrise!

Sunrise reflected on a building.

Thought these colors were so beautiful. (:

That’s all for now! More to come soon!

Until next time, 

Ariel 


Up next: Napier!