So while we were at the War Memorial yesterday Stu got a message from Kit that the alarm light was flashing. The alarm hadn't gone off (that we know of), it was just flashing. Stu got her to check the breakers and sure enough one had tripped. When we got back to the hotel last night I investigated how long the power had been off for. Turns it had been off for three full days :(:(:( I was pretty upset because it would mean losing an entire fridge/freezer worth of food. And we were worried about the fish too.
So of course I couldn't get to sleep for ages. And Stu stayed awake reading quite late which made me restless and he woke me up at 5am and then with a sore spine and hunger it was hard to get back to sleep. But I eventually did. Glad to not have to sleep in that bed again.
Got up a little late, got ready and backed up all the things while Stu got ready.
We headed out for brunch, ending up at Espressoholic. Had a nice brunch there.
Then we walked down to the Te Papa museum. It was a bit crazy because it was "Dance Day" and so was a bit crowded. I pretty much hated the museum from the first few minutes. It's modern so you don't get organised galleries. It's basically a choose your own adventure, which means it's easy to miss things if you don't happen to see the entrance. This may work ok for some people's brains, but not mine. It just stresses me out. I need things to be organised. So we wandered somewhat at random, because, unorganised museum. I'm not entirely sure of the point of the museum. There didn't seem to be a lot of logic to how things were organised. One minute we were walking through stuff on war with the Maoris and a second later it was feral animals. The kids did seem to like it though as there was a reasonable amount of interactive stuff. My favourite part was some of the modern art on the top floor. One gallery had a whole stack of things I thought were pretty cool. We finished up with the Gallipoli exhibition which at least had a set course to it, but was pretty crowded and did get congested in places.
Outside Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
The Marae (meeting place) at Te Papa, designed by Cliff Whiting
Stained glass at The Marae
Dancers rehearsing in one of the foyers in Te Papa
Mobile phone necklace by Lisa Walker in Toi Art
Laptop necklace by Lisa Walker in Toi Art
Indra's Bow by Tiffany Singh
Indra's bow encourages us to acknowledge the spectrum of colours present in our everyday lives. The title refers to the Hindu god Indra, who used a rainbow to destroy evil. The work is also inspired by the Hindu festival of Diwali, which celebrates the triumph of light over darkness
Feathers in Indra's Bow
Fun to get different angles of Indra's Bow, although difficult to photograph the whole thing
Each ball in Indra's Bow held something different relating to the colour of the ribbon
Magic!
Next to Indra's Bow was a kids activity area. This kaleidescope box was there
Animation screened onto a glitter board by Reuben Paterson. Photographs don't do it justice
Total Internal Reflection, by Tiffany Singh. Reminded me of the James Turrell exhibition. That I never got to see.
Stu watching the glitter animation
Everything in its Right Place, by Helen Calder
Automated Colour Field, by Rebecca Baumann
Rainbow Country, by Ani O'Neill
Kaz and Stu outside at Te Papa with Wellington behind us
One of the cannons that was cast overboard from the Endeavour on 11 June 1770 when it ran aground on the Great Barrier Reef
Sculpture of Lieutenant Spencer Westmacott in the Gallipoli exhibition
Diorama of Gallipoli
Maori prayer book which saved the life of Private Hone Tahitahi by stopping a bullet
Collected our bags and headed up Cuba Street to find linner. Eventually ended up at the same sushi place as yesterday.
Then collected our bags and headed for the airport. We were going to leave for the airport at 17:00 but decided since we were ready at 16:00 we'd head out and then we'd only have to move once. Except that checkin didn't open til 16:30 so we had to wait around for that. And then we couldn't go through security until 17:30. So it meant a whole heap of waiting around to get to the gate. Stu was going to work on his essay but just didn't get a good enough block of time. We shoulda stayed at the hotel for an hour. Oh well.
Gandalf flying on an Eagle in Wellington Airport
Bought some stuff duty free (it seems you are allowed to buy duty free liquids in New Zealand, don't know why we couldn't in Hong Kong).
The flight home was a lot better then the flight over. Sadly we took off to the south so no views of the city (not that we would have seen much anyway as the clouds were too low). The entertainment system on the plane we had was much more modern, and even had USB charging in the seat. Watched Darkest Hour on it. And the GPS recorded this time! Although there was nothing much to record as I didn't get any photos because it was dark.
Stu and Kaz on the plane about to go home
Arrived in Canberra twenty minutes early. Took a little while to get through immigration. Then a taxi home.
My computer was still on when we got home - seems it acknowledged the UPS this time and put itself to sleep. I have some dead fish in the two foot - the rummy nose tetras. That tank was offline for an extra day because the RCD needs resetting if it loses power and it felt *cold*. The fish in the angel tank look ok, and Stu said no obvious casualties downstairs, but that will need to be checked again tomorrow. Stuff in the fridge/freezer mostly *looks* ok, but some things will need more care than others. The freezer did fully defrost, as evidenced in frozen peas that had stuck together, and Stumpy's food that had obviously flowed in its bag. But how warm did it all get? There's half a chance that things didn't get *much* above freezing, as the house is pretty cool and the doors weren't opened. Sigh.
Anyways, that whole incident put a bit of a damper on the last bit of our holiday, but we still very much enjoyed it. And got to enjoy one of the very last direct international flights from Canberra to Wellington.
Sylvia
Now I see that you did get to the Te Papa Museum after all. You saw some amazing exhibits that we didn't although I did get the same photo of the Maori Meeting house.
Sorry about your lost fish, hope you didn't lose too much food.
Glad it was a great trip for your anniversary anyway.