Back up North

At the beginning of June I decided it was time for another adventure (my lack of blogs being indicative of my sedentary school-ridden state) and I chose to head back north to the fair city of Wellington. If you recall, my last visit was immediately after the 6.3 earthquake in February and I was flown there on a Hercules military plane. It was definitely nice to go back under less stressful circumstances!

I spent the first couple of days enjoying the city again; Wellington is a wonderful place. It's right on the harbour, it doesn't feel too big, everyone seems to be dressed fashionably and the shops are really interesting. I went back to Te Papa, the national museum, and explored it for a lot longer this time since I wasn't beckoned to the beach by warm weather. I saw a giant squid, explored a re-creation of what New Zealand would have been like pre-contact and saw loads of physical examples of Maori culture that I've been studying all semester. 

I did a short walk up Mt Kaukau (pronounced cow-cow) and was lucky to have a clear enough day to see over to the South Island (hopefully it shows up in the picture). The weather has been unseasonably warm here lately, which has been bad news for the ski hills but enjoyable everywhere else!

South Island is across the water on the right

But what I was really pumped about that weekend was seeing my first live pro rugby game! I saw the Hurricanes (Wellington's team) play the Lions (a South African team). It was a great game and the Hurricanes won 38-27, so despite the rain fans were pumped!

Hosea Gear gets his second try of the game

The next day I visited Martinborough to enjoy the quaint wine country again before it was time to head back to Christchurch and focus on my studies once more.