Chunninghams in Taupo: Wellington Redux

Hi Aidan here, last weekend we went to Wellington, the capital, for our birthdays. Jasper and I were turning seven and ten. Back when we first got to New Zealand, Wellington was the first place we stayed. Jasper and I wanted to go back there for our birthdays because Jasper's favorite restaurant was there and I wanted to go to Te Papa, the national museum.

We don't have any photos from our first day, unfortunately, but here's a quick summary:

We went to Te Papa and we saw the giant squid there. There was also a cool Chinese exhibit that we went to as well. I liked looking at the art. In the Chinese exhibit, we read all about the many emperors of China up until the last emperor. We visited the library although we weren't allowed to take out any books, although it was fun looking at the architecture of the building. Then we went to the modern art museum and saw lots of art that didn't seem to have color. There were lots of blacks and whites. We then walked along the waterfront and looked for egg sculptures that were made by Whittaker's, the New Zealand chocolate company. They are part of a giant Easter egg hunt but we only found about ten on that day. We had dinner at a cool restaurant on Cuba Street that played a lot of rock music. It was a very fun and exciting day.

The second day we remembered our camera.

This is a photo of Cuba Street, the street that we stayed on. We liked our hotel. There was a piano in the lobby although we weren't allowed to play it.

We are now having breakfast at Jasper's favorite restaurant, Floridita's.(Here is our cousin Liam's Flat Stanley)

This is Jasper's favorite meal at Floridita's: porridge with cream and brown sugar. You can see he used all the brown sugar up! He also loved his orange juice.

This is the Wellington cable car. It is now mostly used for tourists although it is sometimes also used as public transportation to go up a very steep hill. Lots of university students use it because there is a stop for the university here. At the top of the hill is the Wellington Botanic Gardens. There's also a playground that Jasper and I love. Here's Flat Stanley again.

ACTION SHOT!

This is a very pretty mosaic that my mom found. The center tile is picture of a kowhai flower. Of course she had to take a picture of it.

Here we are walking in the gardens.

Now all of sudden we took a trip to space in the planetarium. This was our first destination while we were in the gardens. There were lots of videos dotted around the various parts of the planetarium. My brother and I liked to watch all of them. I thought it was interesting that you weren't to bring a teddy bear on a spaceship because if it got a rip or tear then the fuzz would float everywhere inside the space ship and might make the spaceship malfunction. Also, did you know that most of the matter in the universe is made up of dark matter?

Here I am playing a video game!

Now Jasper wants a turn

Whee!

We are now in the playground at the botanic gardens. Jasper and I are racing down the slides. We are using our jackets as a kind of sled to make us go faster. It was very successful.

This is my mother on a flying fox. It is a sort of zipline like thing except for the fact that you sit on it and it's much lower to the ground. It is very fun. I just have to add that.

Here is Jasper and Stanley. Don't worry, I got a turn, too! Stanley, look at the camera, please.

Oooooh, scary tunnel.

This was a very crazy swing. It mostly involved getting Mommy motion sick and having her push off the wooden pole in the middle in order to make Jasper and me go extremely high.

Here is Jasper trying to feed the ducks. The ducks, however, are very smart and don't attempt to eat the pebbles that Jasper throws in.

Now Jasper is trying, again unsuccessfully, to gag a frog statue in a fountain.

In the botanic gardens, there is rose garden. The roses smell very nice, as seen above.

This is very pretty pink one. My mother, of course, loved it.

Jasper doesn't really care about the roses.

Boys on a bench with a jacket

This is Jasper's leash for his pet stick. It is what he's been working on for the previous two photos, see above.

FLORIDITA'S

This is our very yummy hot chocolate before you put marshmallows in it.

Here is one of the egg sculptures. There is a cloud, a sun, and some water on the bottom.

This is a very famous sculpture between the four of us. It is called the bucket and Jasper's favorite game is to try and dodge the constant streams of water jetting out of the fountain. He often fails and gets wet though.

Here are some photos of Wellington. We are at the top of Mount Victoria, looking down.

This is Jasper, in jail. What has he done now?

This is Mommy and me, on the highest point on Mount Victoria.

Now we are at a park called Zealandia, named after a large continent at the time of Gondwanaland. Zealandia sunk and created New Zealand. The park has many native animals in it. They built a great fence surrounding the entire valley. This keeps out predators and protects the wildlife inside. Here is a native animal called a boat.