Windy Welly

School was cancelled on the last day a few weeks ago, and I obviously couldn't reschedule my ticket home, so Miriana, Heather, and her host mom and brother looked and found a really cheap flight to Wellington for the day! It's the capital of New Zealand, located at the bottom of the North Island (Auckland is basically at the top) and it's a 9 hour drive so it wouldn't have been possible to drive or train there. It turned out to be a great day even though it rained! I don't have many pictures, but I promise you, it was a wonderful last day in NZ.

We started our day with a free tour of the building where New Zealand's Parliament meets. It's nicknamed the BeeHive because of its unique shape! There are no completely straight rooms and there is nothing in the center of the building either.

We went up and down the line on the historic Wellington cable car! It looked so old it belongs in museum but apparently it's still fully functioning and something every has to do when they visit Welly.

The view of the city from the top cable car stop.

After that we headed to lunch at an underground food court, and I had my first real burrito since I arrived!

In the afternoon, we headed to Te Papa, a free national museum. There were some super cool exhibits and Heather and I enjoyed our time there immensely. One highlight was an exhibit about different refugee families who've sought asylum in New Zealand found a welcoming second home. There were stories on the walls and some interactive boards where you could listen to poems some of the refugees had written about their experience. Below is a lit timeline on the ground showing all the work New Zealand has done to welcome different people groups into cities around the country.

After that we shopped on Cuba Street, a main attraction in the town. We stopped for a drink along the way... and I was hitting a major wall. ;)

Then we went to dinner at a delicious Indian restaurant--Heather's first time eating Indian! It was so fun to try different dishes all together!

We then returned to the airport and headed home. Thank you to Miriana for showing me around the city and be willing to travel with me last weekend and then again on Wednesday! :)