Another Wellington Weekend

   What a fun weekend! I stayed in Wellington this weekend, but I sure was busy! Friday night, Hallie and I went to go see a movie. The cinemas we were at had couches with pillows in the theatre. So comfy! We saw Amour, a French film. It was so beautiful and heartbreaking. Go see it!

Taking the cable car to the top of the hill. You can see why we didn't want to walk! 

   Saturday was a busy day. We headed to the Botanic Gardens first thing. We took the cable car up, because the botanic gardens are at the very top of one of Wellington’s hills. We wandered around the gardens for a while. There was so much to see, and everything was beautiful! The Lady Norwood Rose Garden was spectacular. There were over 300 varieties of roses! After exploring the gardens, we headed town to Parliament, which is right near our flat. Unfortunately there were no cameras allowed on the tour, so I couldn’t get any pictures of the awesome architecture and decorations inside the Beehive and Parliament Houses.

One of over 300 types of roses!

The Beehive and Parliament House. Only a couple minutes from my flat.

   Saturday night, Hallie and I had tickets for a roller derby bout. It was SO awesome! It was really intense, and the score was close the whole time. I loved it! Afterwards, we were feeling like pigging out, so we bought ice cream, cones, jimmies, hot fudge, and cookies. My belly hurts just thinking about all that we ate…

DERBY!!!

   Sunday.. what a day! I had heard that Denny’s had a breakfast buffet on the weekends, so I tried to go to that this morning. Turns out Denny’s is closed for construction, whoops! I had planned to go to the airport today, so I hopped on the bus and rode out there. It was my first time riding a public bus and it was so confusing. Once I got to the airport, I saw the huge Gollum statue that is hanging from the ceiling. It was bigger than I expected! It’s so cool that New Zealand embraces the Lord of the Rings lifestyle. I also got a quick bite to eat at Donut King, which is sort of like a Dunkin Donuts. I miss Dunkin so I was anxious to try it! It was good, but not like DD. I wandered around the airport, and decided my route home. I wanted to walk, which I knew would take me a while. It only took 20 minutes to drive there and it ended up taking 3 hours to walk home! But I took my time and I stopped along the way. I walked along the beach and the Meridian Wind Sculpture Walk at Evans Bay on the way home, which has a bunch of huge wind sculptures. They were really cool, and I loved how they interacted with the wind! A ways later I walked through the Mount Victoria Tunnel. It was really hot in there! And loud! I suppose it’s tradition that everyone honks their horns while going through the tunnel.

Gollum in the airport. He's 13 metres long and weighs 1.2 tonnes!

At the beginning of the Mt. Vic Tunnel.

   I love exploring Wellington. There is so much to do here! Even just walking along the waterfront never gets old. As much as I like it, I am so excited to get away for a week! Easter break is starting this Thursday, and I'll be all over the North Island for a week. I'm heading to Waitomo to go caving, White Island to explore an active volcano, and Taupo to go parasailing. Does that sound awesome or what?!