Wellington and Forgetfulness

When I packed for Wellington, I made sure to fully charge my camera, bring the charger just in case, and even to put in a big memory card. But did I remember to bring my cord so that I could put the pictures on my computer for my blog? No. So, no pictures until we get home on Friday night. Sorry about that. They're good pictures, though. You will enjoy them when they come. :)

I rode down to Wellington with Lionel in his camper-van (which is what they call RVs here). We had a nice ride through some beautiful countryside, ending up by the beautiful harbour. It was nice to talk with Lionel, and it was very nice of him to let me ride with him. When we got here, we met up with J and another MPI employee, and we all walked around downtown a bit, then found a nice restaurant for dinner. It was a delicious dinner, with pleasant company.

Unfortunately, when we got back to the hotel, I got hit by a nasty case of food poisoning. I'm betting that it was from some of the snacky-food at the art gallery we went to, since the food was sitting outside. Anyway, I had a miserable night, but J ran to the store and got me medicine, and today I feel 100% better, so that's all good. I went to the Wellington Zoo today, and had a very nice time. I'll wait and tell you about it with pictures when I get back.

In the meantime, I thought I'd tell you a bit about Wellington. It is the capital of NZ, and it is the third largest city in the country with a population of 200,000. It is much smaller than Auckland and technically smaller than Christchurch, but if you count the suburbs and surrounding urban area, it is actually bigger than Christchurch. It is down on the southern tip of the North Island, and is where you can take a ferry down to the South Island, if you are so inclined. The Parliament Buildings and other government offices are here, but there are also a lot of art galleries, nice cafés, and museums, and it apparently has a great night life. My friends in Whanganui have told me that Auckland is great, but if they were going to live in a big city, they would definitely choose Wellington, because it has more personality and culture. It has been ranked in the Top 10 Cities to Visit by The Lonely Planet, which is pretty cool.

The downtown area, which is where our hotel and J's training is, is extremely compact - everything I want to see/do downtown is within a 10 minute walk from the hotel, which is so nice. Unfortunately, there are amazing-looking restaurants and cafés every two steps, which means I have to walk past 100 of them to get anywhere, and am focusing on developing some self-control. We'll see how I do.

I am glad to be feeling better, glad to be in Wellington, and glad that J will be done for the day soon, and then hopefully we can get a nice dinner. Also, I'm sorry about the lack of pictures, but they will come, I promise.