Claudia and Duncan in Windy Welly
Te Hono Ki Hawaiki
Detail
Earthquakes
I woke up this morning thinking about earthquakes. I guess because there have been two majors in the world recently, and Wellington is on a major fault line. We walked right over it yesterday when we took the cable car up to the botanic garden and walked back down to our city apartment, situated across from Old St. Paul’s Anglican Church. We are staying on the ground floor in “Windy Welly”, a gorgeous harbour city at the southern tip of the North Island, well known for the almost constant winds that blow night and day. I guess we would be flattened like fleas in our apartment block or inundated by flood (we’re pretty close to the water) if the worst happened.
Te Papa Tongarewa or Our Place, an extraordinary museum of New Zealand history, geology, archaeology, art and culture didn’t help to quell my unease. Exhibitions on nearly every floor emphasize New Zealand’s precarious position on the edge of the world. Upon entering one of the cleverest displays, one can step on an interactive map to activate a photo or film. The majority feature scenes from past earthquakes, erupting volcanoes, raging floods, blazing infernos etc. In another display you can enter a facsimile of a wooden house and experience the aftershock jolts, of the Edgecomb Earthquake of 1987! Currently The Last Days of Pompeii, a feature exhibition, takes you through August 24-25 AD 79 via a 3D movie, to show how Mt. Vesuvius buried the town in less than 24 hours. Mesmerized we watched it twice! Douglas and Anna are closer to the fault line than we are - they are situated in hilly Karori in a two storey wooden villa, apparently wooden structures withstand earthquakes better than brick or concrete. Ah well, living on the edge... It gives new meaning to the phrase in my mind.
We took 3 days to tackle Te Papa, visiting a different floor every day. We’d heard about this museum from absolutely everyone we know, who has visited Wellington and couldn’t wait to see it; we were not disappointed. Ottawa’s Museum of Civilization merged with the ROM would be the Canadian equivalent, I guess, but it also has changing visual arts displays on the top floor. An introductory guided tour provided an overview, then we worked our way down the stairs tackling one level each day. We both voted the Maori and New Zealand culture diplays on Level 4 as the most interesting to us. Te Hono ki Hawaiki, the meeting house on the Maori marae, recalls the ancestral land of the Maori. It is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, carved with soaring figures from the Maori creation stories and coloured predominately in blues, reds, golds. Upon entering the marae from the outside, we were greeted by a gorgeous stained glass window backlit by the bright sun.
The displays on the pakeha (Europeans) were fascinating too. Reminiscent of the one we had seen in Cobh in Ireland about immigrants to North America, we read of the arduous journeys of the original settlers from England, who were lured to NZ in search of better lives. Their stories were similar to those of the European immigrants to Canada and the US. It’s obvious that they tried to recreate their lives in England bringing sheep, goats, pigs and all manner of plants to this alien place.
In fact, New Zealand is currently trying to rid itself of some of the invasive species imported by foreigners. The museum provides lots of information on this subject and so far we’ve visited two nature reserves surrounded by pest free barriers, that were created to reintroduce and/or protect native fauna, kiwi, tuatara, weta and many species of endangered birds, my favourite (so far) being the Tui, a fascinating creature with two voice boxes, capable of making wheezes, clicks, groans and some conventional bird-like noises too. It sounds like something Rube Goldberg would have designed on one of his best days. (I know you can’t imagine it so enjoy the sound on the link!)
New Zealand Culture
I love to immerse myself in local culture while travelling, so upon arrival we headed to the local DVD rental shop and took advantage of a 4 for $10 offer to borrow New Zealand films. We watched The Whale Rider again and enjoyed it immensely after learning about the Maoris firsthand. Do yourself a favour and rent this film again; I’m sure you’ve all seen it before. We are currently touring the exquisite landscape you will see in the film. Lucky us! We also rented The World’s Fastest Indian – the locals wouldn’t let us out of the shop without it, a film about Sylvia Ashton Warner, an artist and teacher and Ngati – another interesting film depicting Maori customs.
I read The Bone People by Keri Hulme, a Booker prize winning novel from the 1980s, and became totally immersed in the minds of the 3 main characters. I’m fascinated that this book won the Booker and wonder how many people have been able to finish it, because several native New Zealanders have admitted they gave up on it. It is one of those fine novels that is worth the effort, and it seemed all the more special because I was reading it in situ. I also read Potiki by another Maori writer, Patricia Grace and enjoyed it too. I’ll have to take time to do some research on these books when I get time, I’m sure I didn’t understand a lot of the content because of the language and culture. There is a glossary in The Bone People to define Maori words and phrases.
The used book shops are great in Wellington, they even issue a little map to help tourists find them. Books are very expensive in NZ and since many of the books recommended by my sister-in-law are not new, I’ve been combing Arty Bee’s, the Ferret, Pegasus and Quilters all within 10 min. walking distance of one another.
In addition to local culture, we are lucky to be here during the New Zealand International Arts Festival. We have tickets to 2 events, Sutra and the Borodin Quartet. Sutra was a fascinating one hour production that I find difficult to describe. It featured martial arts, dance and a constantly changing visual pattern created by wooden boxes. Words don’t do justice so I’ve included a link! We go to the concert tonight.
I woke up this morning thinking about earthquakes. I guess because there have been two majors in the world recently, and Wellington is on a major fault line. We walked right over it yesterday when we took the cable car up to the botanic garden and walked back down to our city apartment, situated across from Old St. Paul’s Anglican Church. We are staying on the ground floor in “Windy Welly”, a gorgeous harbour city at the southern tip of the North Island, well known for the almost constant winds that blow night and day. I guess we would be flattened like fleas in our apartment block or inundated by flood (we’re pretty close to the water) if the worst happened.
Te Papa Tongarewa or Our Place, an extraordinary museum of New Zealand history, geology, archaeology, art and culture didn’t help to quell my unease. Exhibitions on nearly every floor emphasize New Zealand’s precarious position on the edge of the world. Upon entering one of the cleverest displays, one can step on an interactive map to activate a photo or film. The majority feature scenes from past earthquakes, erupting volcanoes, raging floods, blazing infernos etc. In another display you can enter a facsimile of a wooden house and experience the aftershock jolts, of the Edgecomb Earthquake of 1987! Currently The Last Days of Pompeii, a feature exhibition, takes you through August 24-25 AD 79 via a 3D movie, to show how Mt. Vesuvius buried the town in less than 24 hours. Mesmerized we watched it twice! Douglas and Anna are closer to the fault line than we are - they are situated in hilly Karori in a two storey wooden villa, apparently wooden structures withstand earthquakes better than brick or concrete. Ah well, living on the edge... It gives new meaning to the phrase in my mind.
We took 3 days to tackle Te Papa, visiting a different floor every day. We’d heard about this museum from absolutely everyone we know, who has visited Wellington and couldn’t wait to see it; we were not disappointed. Ottawa’s Museum of Civilization merged with the ROM would be the Canadian equivalent, I guess, but it also has changing visual arts displays on the top floor. An introductory guided tour provided an overview, then we worked our way down the stairs tackling one level each day. We both voted the Maori and New Zealand culture diplays on Level 4 as the most interesting to us. Te Hono ki Hawaiki, the meeting house on the Maori marae, recalls the ancestral land of the Maori. It is like nothing I’ve ever seen before, carved with soaring figures from the Maori creation stories and coloured predominately in blues, reds, golds. Upon entering the marae from the outside, we were greeted by a gorgeous stained glass window backlit by the bright sun.
The displays on the pakeha (Europeans) were fascinating too. Reminiscent of the one we had seen in Cobh in Ireland about immigrants to North America, we read of the arduous journeys of the original settlers from England, who were lured to NZ in search of better lives. Their stories were similar to those of the European immigrants to Canada and the US. It’s obvious that they tried to recreate their lives in England bringing sheep, goats, pigs and all manner of plants to this alien place.
In fact, New Zealand is currently trying to rid itself of some of the invasive species imported by foreigners. The museum provides lots of information on this subject and so far we’ve visited two nature reserves surrounded by pest free barriers, that were created to reintroduce and/or protect native fauna, kiwi, tuatara, weta and many species of endangered birds, my favourite (so far) being the Tui, a fascinating creature with two voice boxes, capable of making wheezes, clicks, groans and some conventional bird-like noises too. It sounds like something Rube Goldberg would have designed on one of his best days. (I know you can’t imagine it so enjoy the sound on the link!)
New Zealand Culture
I love to immerse myself in local culture while travelling, so upon arrival we headed to the local DVD rental shop and took advantage of a 4 for $10 offer to borrow New Zealand films. We watched The Whale Rider again and enjoyed it immensely after learning about the Maoris firsthand. Do yourself a favour and rent this film again; I’m sure you’ve all seen it before. We are currently touring the exquisite landscape you will see in the film. Lucky us! We also rented The World’s Fastest Indian – the locals wouldn’t let us out of the shop without it, a film about Sylvia Ashton Warner, an artist and teacher and Ngati – another interesting film depicting Maori customs.
I read The Bone People by Keri Hulme, a Booker prize winning novel from the 1980s, and became totally immersed in the minds of the 3 main characters. I’m fascinated that this book won the Booker and wonder how many people have been able to finish it, because several native New Zealanders have admitted they gave up on it. It is one of those fine novels that is worth the effort, and it seemed all the more special because I was reading it in situ. I also read Potiki by another Maori writer, Patricia Grace and enjoyed it too. I’ll have to take time to do some research on these books when I get time, I’m sure I didn’t understand a lot of the content because of the language and culture. There is a glossary in The Bone People to define Maori words and phrases.
The used book shops are great in Wellington, they even issue a little map to help tourists find them. Books are very expensive in NZ and since many of the books recommended by my sister-in-law are not new, I’ve been combing Arty Bee’s, the Ferret, Pegasus and Quilters all within 10 min. walking distance of one another.
In addition to local culture, we are lucky to be here during the New Zealand International Arts Festival. We have tickets to 2 events, Sutra and the Borodin Quartet. Sutra was a fascinating one hour production that I find difficult to describe. It featured martial arts, dance and a constantly changing visual pattern created by wooden boxes. Words don’t do justice so I’ve included a link! We go to the concert tonight.
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