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Friday I awoke to a gross, rainy day. I decided that was a sign, since the weekend was pretty full that I should go ahead and do laundry and work from the house that day – so I did.

I also caught up with folks from home via Skype and texting, did a fair amount of work for my RU class, and just generally spent the day being productive (admittedly in my PJs for a large chunk of the day).

Friday night I decided I had a hankering for pizza, and although I could have ordered delivery decided to brave the wet, fairly gross evening to venture to a pizza place. NOt far from the house is a pizza joint I read about, Hell Pizza. While the website and menu might be a little disturbing I was assured by folks that it was good pizza. So I donned my handy Columbia rain jacket – which has been one of the most essential things I brought with me, by the way, and set out to get dinner.

Once there I found a substantial wait, so I hung out while I waited on my pizza – I ordered the snack size “Lust Deluxe”. Interesting fact – they don’t serve beer at Hell (make of that what you will friends).

The pizza was yummy. I finished it and set off for home.

Saturday morning was an early day, as I had a ticket to the Greater Wellington Brewday (Beer Festival) which was in Upper Hutt at the Trentham Racecourse, so I had a train to catch.

Wellington Train Station is small, but like any good train station, there is a Platform 9 and 3/4 – in this case a dry cleaners!

I actually made it to the train station in time to catch an earlier train, so I went ahead and caught it, which gave me time to spare once I got off at the Trentham stop – so I crossed the street and had a nice coffee and toast with “streaky bacon” and a poached egg at the Trentham Mess Hall  (probably a good choice before heading to a beer festival)- the decor was on point!

After my brunch I crossed the pathway over the train tracks to the Trentham Racecourse where the event was held. The weather held out better than I expected for most of the day – and the showers were minimally invasive, as I had found a nice spot to camp between samples inside one of the white tents. I chatted with fun people from NZ, Europe and even a fun couple from the US who were in NZ following a cruise and headed home the next day. The music was great – cover bands that played songs I knew, and the people watching was even better. My personal favorite was the guy dressed as a German Bar Maid, fake breasts, stockings and all – complete with a mustache and full beard.

Interesting note though about alcohol service in New Zealand – they are rather stringent with service. If you are intoxicated – you will not be served more beer – period. There are posters everywhere about chilling out before you get more – in bars and restaurants too. I enjoyed sampling beers from local brewers, and have quite a few to try and find for later. It was a fun day, and once things were wrapping up I took the train home, stopped by the grocery, fixed dinner and relaxed.

Sunday morning started kind of rainy and gray, but since I overslept and missed church last week, I thought I should really get myself moving, so I did. I walked to church and arrived with time to spare, so I got to listen to their choir having their first practice of the year, and thumbed through the New Zealand hymnal, looking for familiar, and not so familiar hymns. Worship was great, and I love the tea time following worship, because it kind of forces me to socialize and meet new people. I met some lovely new friends, including a fellow PCUSA’er currently living in New Zealand!

After church I decided to grab a quick sandwich for lunch in a little cafe, and on my way home stopped by a chocolate shop for a coffee (my new obsession – a flat white) and mini chocolate treat.

In the time since I had left the house, it had started to turn into a gorgeous day, so I thought I would go home for a bit and grab my beach gear then take a trip to Oriental Bay and actually get in the water. I waited for the worst of the midday sun to die down – y’all know this girl burns if the sun looks at her sideways, right? Then walked from Aro Valley to Oriental Bay. I even stumbled upon this cool “container coffee cafe”- with a pretty cool story and mission – it was closed, but I plan to visit again soon.

While a little chilly, it was quite nice to spend time in the water, and made me wish I had brought my snorkel gear from the house (I did at the last minute throw it in my suitcase to come here, and I am quite thankful I did). I have never seen so many crabs, sea stars and other sea life right on the floor of a beach like I did today. I did take my phone with its limited waterproof abilities (terrified at every step, mind you) out to capture just a bit of the beauty, but I will go back with the proper go pro and snorkel gear soon.

After my water adventures, I just hung out on the beach, and realized that sunset wasn’t far away, so decided to just hang out and see if it was going to be another spectacular sunset (we have had several nights of just stunningly colored skies). The sunset was not super colorful tonight (still beautiful mind you), but instead of the sunset colors, I was rewarded with a spectacular rainbow that started as a vertical sliver across the bay and later grew into an rainbow that boldly shot across the bay, bright, defined and colorful. It was truly a sight to behold.  I also got to see the Oriental Bay fountain and trees light up after dark. Such a neat area!

This image posted on the Wellington Live Facebook and Instagram by @benwoodphoto is just stunning, and captures it beautifully. (I am also in the picture, on the beach!)

At this point, it was late, so I started home, and ended up taking an Uber when I realized that the park path I would take home I wasn’t going to reach until well after 10:00, and it is a little dark up there – my general rule is after 10:00, if I am walking home alone – it is time to spend the $5.00 on a cab or Uber.

What a great weekend!

Thursday morning I started by stopping by the Fulbright New Zealand office to get my very snazzy business cards. I also had the pleasure of joining the #FulbrightNZ crew for their daily coffee time – it was a blast, and I loved chatting with the staff and fellow Fulbrighters Karsten (Grad Student) and Beth (Teacher).

After  I got my cards and left the Fulbright NZ office I was headed to the University to work on my ethics proposal, when I realized that it was a gorgeous day – and we have been told to take advantage of those days – and since all I needed to write was my surface, I thought I would take it on an adventure with me to a beach that I was told was one of the best in the Wellington area – and for the sake of validation and research, I thought I needed to check it out. So with bus and walking directions in hand (or in phone) as the case may be, I set out for Karaka Bay and Scorching Bay, on the north end of the Miramar Peninsula and at the entrance to Wellington Harbor.

I got off the bus in a very residential area and started the trek down the pedestrian path to the bay – and I went down, and down and down.

It was a gorgeous walk with spectacular views of the bay.

And all of my walking was rewarded as soon as I stepped out of the bush when I emerged and was greeted with this lovely view.

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Check out a panorama of the pier here:

From the pier I started down toward the beach – a very peaceful, quiet stroll – weher for much of the time it was just me on the road – I kind of felt like I was in my own personal paradise. I did refrain from stopping by the lovely house that was for sale – I am pretty certain that a second home in New Zealand – on the beach none the less is well outside of my financial reach!

These are just some things that caught my eye as I headed to the beach area and cafe.

When I arrived at the Scorching Bay Beach – it was lunch time, so I popped into the famous Scorch-o-rama Cafe for lunch and had a very nice fish and chips while enjoying the views of the bay. I knew it was a good restaurant for me because they have geekery all around with various Star-Wars, Superhero, Lego, Game of Thrones and Video Game things all around (even extending into the bathrooms!).

I mean – does this not look like a restaurant I would enjoy?

After I had my lunch – I then walked out to the beach – y’all – it was so gorgeous and peaceful I can’t even really put it in words. I used my snazzy travel blanket (Thanks Lisa!) and settled in and wrote, then read a few articles and journals as the waves crashed around the rocks and on the beach. I’m telling you – not a bad way to work today, for sure.

 

I spent the afternoon at the beach, then headed home. After a quick dinner with Julian and Joanna, they headed to the airport to a sculpture thing in Auckland, and I headed upstairs to watch the glider show and sunset from the upstairs balcony before I headed to bed.

Wednesday Feb. 15th was another lovely day – and I again began my day by being productive. I went by the University to write for a bit, then decided I wanted to make my first foray into the world of Peter Jackson, by visiting the Weta Workshop in Miramar – so, I left the university and caught the bus to Miramar.

Weta is a neat place – unfortunately no pictures are allowed inside due to legal copyright and ownership regulations – what I can say is that I saw (and touched) really cool props from movies like the Hobbit, LoTR, Narnia, and more and even watched some 3D printing and laser cutting of props for “unknown” upcoming shows.

I learned lots about their prop fabrication process – which in many ways took me back to high school theater prop design – it really wasn’t that much different.

I also learned where Weta got its name – and why there are pictures of these insects on everything.

Weta is a type of insect found in New Zealand (similar to a cricket) – and they have a fascinating story of survival, adaptation and evolution- and lots of conservation efforts are aimed at protecting them.

What was really cool to me is that Weta (the workshop – not the insect) uses a software in their 3D design that I have used with my students – so it was cool that I recognized that – the tour guide (who works in the shop at Weta) was super impressed that my students were using it at the “primary” level.

I also saw the Thunderbirds are Go miniatures set – which was pretty fascinating and the process they use for filming is amazing.

I did visit the cave (gift shop) but I was good – and purchased nothing, even though there were some things that made my geeky heart pretty happy. I also have a few pictures below of the trolls and entrance – but you can visit the website to see a little more. https://www.wetanz.com/

On my way home, I walked by my apartment and my favorite place in Wellington – teh waterfront – and was happy to see stairs are in place – at least some temporary strains – so hopefully progress is happening – slowly but surely. 

Then I ventured home – just in time for a beautifully colorful sunset. 

So, Monday was a pretty gross (rainy and windy) day. I decided to use the dreary day to do work on my Ethics proposal and do housework, pay bills and other inside things. I even got caught up on my blog, which you wouldn’t know from the tardiness of this post, but never the less, here we are.

On Tuesday (Feb. 14), apparently summer arrived in Wellington – in a gorgeous and fabulous fashion. I got myself up at a fairly early hour – got dressed, and made myself write for the first part of the day – I finished the first pass on my ethics proposal and got some stuff together for when I do finally get to visit schools and interview teachers. After I had completed a fair amount of work I set out on an adventure to enjoy the beautiful day. I decided it was definitely time to check out the famous Wellington Cable Car. Because I was savoring the weather, I just strolled the 45 minutes or so to the Cable Car station instead of catching the bus first.

The Cable Car is really cool – and some other day I am going to go to the Cable Car Museum to learn more about it.

After getting to the top of the Cable Car (at Kelburn – near Victoria U). I thought I would continue to savour the outdoors and walk along the Kowhai Walk – a short walk that “traces the development of astronomy and related sciences in New Zealand” – right up my alley, for sure. The Kowhai trail loops past the Space Place and Carter Observatory – where I do plan to spend some quality time, alas, today it was closed for a special Valentine’s Day event. The trail was easy and quick (even with me reading and checking out all sorts of little details), but certainly afforded me some quality views of Wellington Harbor. (I apologize for the duplicate pictures – my phone was being a pain during the upload process)

After I finished the Kowhai path, I decided I would take on the Wellington Botanic Garden, and I strolled along the path from the Cable Car to the Beehive, NZ’s Parliament building. It was a beautiful walk – and I cant wait to go back and do teh sculpture garden trail. The Rise Garden was amazing, and I could have sat there for hours enjoying the sight and smell.

As you get to the end of the botanical garden you go through a cemetery, the Bolton Street Cemetery, which is now unfortunately bisected by the Motorway.

It was a lovely stroll through here as well, and I found myself back on Lambton Quay just a bit further down from where I began my journey on the cable car.

At this point I decided to catch the bus back to Central Park and take the shorter path home.

 

We gathered together early on Thursday 2 of Feb. to begin our Fulbright New Zealand Orientation. This included all of the Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching Recipients (6 of us) as well as the Fulbright Scholars, Fulbright Graduate Students and the Ian Axford Public Policy Fellows. All together there were 22 of us awardees at the orientation. Our orientation began with a welcome and introductions by the Fulbright NZ staff, and we each introduced ourselves, of course with our name, where we were from, and sharing an interesting story about our name. It was fascinating to hear stories about peoples names – what a great way to have a group introduce themselves!

(It doesn’t hurt that as “Merry” not Mary, I do have a pretty neat story to share)

Our first presentation was a Snapshot of NZ Culture and History, lead by Dr. Jock Phillips. Jock did a great job of giving us an overview of significant events in NZ history – NZ – like the US, has a relatively new history – but certainly fascinating, and the history of New Zealand is an essential background to understanding the significance of Maori and Polynesian cultures and their impact on New Zealand. Jock is the former general editor of Te Ara, a general encyclopedia of New Zealand – which is quite fascinating. This snapshot from Te Ara is a great overview of what Jock shared with us.

After Jock’s presentation we had lunch – let me just tell you – Fulbright NZ fed us well. It felt like we were always having lunch or tea or snacks!

Following lunch we had a presentation titled “The peopling of Polynesia: An Introduction to New Zealand and Polynesia Histories” led by Amber Kiri Aranui, a repatriation researcher at Te Papa Tongarewa (The National Museum of New Zealand). Amber’s talk was a fascinating lecture on the settlement of the Polynesian islands (forming a triangle from Hawaii to Rapa Nui (Easter Island) to New Zealand) all connected by similar bloodlines, traditions and language. She drew a distinction between Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia, which was quite helpful for me as I begin to understand the interconnectedness of the first peoples of these lands. If you want to learn more, check out http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/pacific-migrations or even https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesia (The maps are great visuals for understanding the journey of these ancient peoples).

Following Amber’s presentation we had a session lead by TP (Te Puoho) Katene. It served as an overview of basics of the Maori Language, pronunciation, protocols and the ceremonial aspects that we would encounter at the Waiwhetu Marae. TP’s session was helpful, fascinating and most beneficial. He even helped us learn our waiata – a song we sing as a part of the Powhiri (Welcoming Ceremony), “E hara I te mea” – you can have a listen here, if you would like.

The Powhiri is difficult to explain, but a lovely experience. This page explains the elements of the Powhiri, there are quite a few videos if you are interested, but there was something magical about being in that space, hearing the ancient chants and becoming a part of such a rich tradition. The Hongi – or sharing of breath as you touch noses- is a key element – and was deeply touching as well.

The people of Waiwhetu were absolutely lovely, and welcoming and the entire stay was just a joy! They welcomed us to their meeting house, allowed us to visit Te Maori (their treasure room) and we were even able to get in a try our the Waka (canoes).

In our time at Waiwhetu we learned about their steps to develop a strategic plan to create a sustainable future for their community, as well as what they see as important for their people to continue to thrive and flourish. The dedication, passion and excitement that the have for their Marae is absolutely touching. We spent the night in the Marae, and the following morning we were treated to a timely presentation on the Treaty of Waitangi, which was quite timely, given that Waitangi Day is February 6th.

Following this it was time for our Poroporoaki (or farewell) and we were to sing a song to thank the Maori for their hospitality and as a farewell. We selected “We are the World” which was a very appropriate song to share, if difficult to sing. If you would like to join me in having the song stuck in your head, please refresh your memory – it is a lovely song. We only sang the first bit.

We then journeyed back to Fulbright NZ’s office where we had a brief session on Award details and logistics, then had free time – we were given the opportunity to tour NZ parliament, so I decided that was the way to go. NZ parliament buildings were lovely (no cameras allowed, however) and our tour guide was fantastic. The buildings reminded me of an interesting mix between the new and the old – with lots of nods to British architecture, as well as some modern flare, much like what I saw at the Reichstag in Berlin.

Following this time we had a Reception at Fulbright New Zealand – it was great to mix and mingle with alumni, board members, university sponsors and other who are engaged and interested in the Fulbright NZ community. Following the reception the Fulbright Teachers all had a lovely dinner at Wagamama on the waterfront to cap off our orientation experience.

All in all – my head is full of facts about NZ culture, history and the rights and struggles of the indigenous peoples, and I feel much more culturally aware, prepared and educated.

I started my first full day in Wellington just walking around my new neighborhood – Aro Valley. Aro Valley is a lovely little place, but let me tell you – it, like so much of Wellington, is NOT flat. It does make for some pretty spectacular views, and I am not very far – less than .5 KM from Aro Street – the hub of the neighborhood. Aro Valley has a few “famous attractions” and I am eager to try them – especially while I am so close! The Garage Project is a local craft beer brewery with some very interesting types of beer – I do foresee spending some time sampling their wares! Arobake is a lovely little bakery, and right next door is the Aro Fish and Chip Shop. Aro Video is also quite the landmark – and it is a real, legitimate video rental shop – pretty cool. Aro Valley is a trendy, artsy neighborhood and I think it will just be lovely to explore!

 

 

 

 

I also found that throughout Wellington there are still PAY PHONES – yes, legitimate payphones – and many of them are modernized, and serve as WiFi hotspots!

At the end of Aro Street, headed to the center of Wellington you run into – Willis Street – so I don’t think I will have a hard time finding my way home, as Willis Street is one of the main streets leading from Aro Valley to the CBD (Central Business District).

 

These are just few cool sights I found on my way to try and open a bank account.

 

I was not able to open my bank account (I needed additional proof of residency), but I had a lovely walk, and really began to get my bearings around the city.

 

 

For lunch the “Female Fulbrighters” – Beth, Sherry and myself met for lunch at a place called Burger Liquor – which, as the name implies, has burgers and, well, liquor. We had a lovely meal, caught up on our travel stories and arrivals, and then went our separate ways to explore more.

At this point I got my first taste of the unpredictableness of Wellington weather. It was suddenly very cool, windy and rainy – but I had exploring to do, so I continued on my way (we all know I won’t melt!)! I explored the Wellington Public Library – and I will be able to get a library card in the next week – so that is quite exciting! Then I walked to the waterfront, and even though it was chilly and a little icky – I enjoyed the view, and I can tell that this will be a great place to hang out while reading, writing and blogging on  pretty day.

 

I continued my walk around the Waterfront until I was just too cold to keep going and popped into Macs Brewbar (convenient, right?) to warm up, grab a drink and relax for a few. I tried the Macs Sassy Red Amber Ale, which was quite yummy.

 

Scattered all around the city are these really cool pines –

Norfolk Pines (Araucaria heterophylla). These trees fascinate me – you can learn more about them here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araucaria_heterophylla.

After I left Macs, I decided it was time to start the walk to the Warehouse (from what I gather the NZ version of Walmart) to get a sleeping bag for the Marae stay, shampoo, conditioner and other essentials. I rounded the corner from Macs and ran smack dab into my “earthquake damaged” flat – have I mentioned how lovely that location is?

 

After a quick picture with the flat – I continued up through Courtenay Place to the store – this was a tour of some of the worst of the earthquake damage – lots of abandoned buildings and construction work on what you can see was a main thoroughfare. I made it to the Warehouse, did my shopping and then headed home, where Joanna had prepared a lovely dinner – have I mentioned how lucky I am that they are letting me stay with them? They are just lovely, engaging people!

 

General Observations:

• Wellington Coffee is the BEST – and we know I know my coffee!
• Kiwis are lovely, friendly people!
• I will be walking a lot – bus service is an option, but for now, I am really enjoying walking around this lovely city, hills, stairs, hidden pathways and all.
• However, the challenge to look right then left is real! – my natural American instinct is to look left then right before crossing is just hard to overcome. I find myself having to consciously rethink that every time!
• Kiwis seem to love a southern accent – it is a brilliant conversation starter, and many of them start with – “I think you are American, but I’ve not heard an accent like yours before”
• If I had any hope of escaping the US politics while abroad, that will not be the case – New Zealanders are very in tune with global politics and eager to have conversations about it. However, their well-informed, global perspectives, not driven by fake news or party affiliation (on either side of the aisle) and genuine desire to understand recent events is a breath of fresh air. I dare say many Kiwis are better informed of US politics than some Americans are.
• So far Wellington is living up to the name “Coolest Little Capital in the World”, and I can’t wait to explore more!

The next blog update will be all about the Fulbright NZ orientation and the fantastic Marae stay.