January 29, 2003
Life in Wellington
We arrived in Wellington a few days ago, and I have been very busy since the second we touched the ground. We are staying at a dormitory for Victoria University called the Weir House. Its a very nice building, its close to downtown, and the food isn't too bad, but probably the worst of the places we have stayed so far.
Wellington is a tiny little town on the north island that is actually the capital of New Zealand. If I had to describe it in one word it would be quaint. Since Wellington only has about 400,000 residents, it has a much quieter downtown than any other city I have visited. All of the shops close around 5:00 PM (sometimes as late as 6:00) and most of the convenience stores close before 9:00 PM. While this all may be true, there is no shortage of things to do in the city.
The first day I spent in Wellington, we walked around the city to get a feel for it and then we went to see Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers at the Embassy Theatre, the location of the Australian Premeire of the first two films. The third film will have its world premeire at this theater, and they are gearing up already. They have built a giant stone Gollum creature on top of the building and he is climbing over the roof, and are spending several million dollars renovating the inside of the theatre. This was a great experience, and I loved the movie (again).
Yesterday was a bit more eventful as we took the cable car up the hill to the Botanic Gardens and took some pictures of the city from the lookout points. We then walked down the hill into the city itself and took a tour of the New Zealand Parliament building.
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Today, I went to Te Papa museum to catch the Lord of the Rings exhibition. This was absolutely phenomenal, especially considering that I am a huge dork, and thus a massive fan of the books and the films. I was able to see most of the costumes, weapons, rings, etc. that appeared in the movie, including Gandalf's costume and staff, Frodo's costume, all the rings of power, with the exception of The One Ring (which apparantly Elijah Wood has), and more. There were video screens throughout the exhibition with hours of documentary footage related to the portion of the exhibit that you were in. I can't say enough about how cool this was. After over two hours in the exhibition, I walked down to the gift shop and purchased a guidebook that gives directions and details on all of the Lord of the Rings sets on both the north and the south islands of New Zealand.
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So far, I really love it here. The weather is pretty good, the city is unbelievably beautiful, and there is a lot to see and do! The city and architecture remind me of San Francisco, with the rolling hills and beautiful homes built into them. But, the city is much smaller and doesn't really have any of the problems that a city like San Francisco has. Its a very beautiful place, and I will try and blog more often from this point out. However, we do not have internet connections at all, and all the cafes are very far away, so I will have to update less frequently for these three weeks.
Until next time!
Posted by panix at January 29, 2003 02:31 AM