Capitol 150 continued

Well I had thought I would get to this a bit sooner, but the last couple of weeks have been busy with teaching, rehearsals and concerts. Tonight is the first of two orchestra concerts this weekend, I am playing the glamorous part of the Contra-bassoon on the keyboard :)

Anyway, on to the topic of this post, I thought I would share more from the Wellington trip. One of the other buildings on display that weekend was the Old Government buildings (before the beehive) which are now a part of Victoria University. You would not guess it from a quick glance, but the entire building was made of timber, despite places that appear to be marble or other materials.

The beehive--current government buildings

Old Government buildings--law department of Victoria University

Entry way

The first woman to work in New Zealand government.

One of many fireplaces.

The grand staircase

Photo of a gathering at the Cenotaph during WWII.

Outside the old Government buildings were some impressive classic cars:

1937

1930

I have quite a lot to show from the WWI museum, so I think I will save that for another day :)

Capitol 150

Now that I have wowed you with the view as we drove to Wellington, I want to tell you about what we saw once we got there. I enjoy visiting Wellington because it is an artsy city, and you never know what you will see. Our trip was focused on enjoying the government and museum sites that were open for viewing, but we saw plenty of interesting people as we people-watched (unfortunately it is considered rude to take their picture), and street art along the way to get pancakes and bagels for breakfast.

The hostel we stayed at was walking distance to all of the exciting down-town stuff, including various countries' embassies:

The US Embassy (directly across the street is the Chinese embassy)

Embassy for Fiji

Cook Islands government buildings

Our first stop on the city-wide tour was the Supreme Court:

Main courtroom

Government seal behind where judges sit

Historic law books and newspapers

Next stop was the Cenotaph, a World War I and II memorial. Normally you can only view the outside, but for this weekend, you were able to go inside.

Flags as you enter the memorial

Book of names of the fallen soldiers

Memorial plaque

Stay tuned for photos and details from old government buildings, World War I museum, and classic cars :)

Getting to Wellington

Last weekend, Troway and I went to Wellington to enjoy "Capitol 150," a celebration of Wellington being the capitol of New Zealand for 150 years. Museums, government buildings, war memorials, universities, and many other important sites around the city were open for free to the public. There was even a free shuttle to get you around the city. But more about that later, first I would like to share the unexpected adventure we encountered on our trip there Friday night.

They always say that half the fun of traveling is simply getting to your destination. I have found that to be mostly true, and I feel that was the case this time as well. I, in my infinite wisdom and confidence that I really do know my way around Taranaki, decided we should take a new way out of town. In my head we were taking a shortcut from the residential part of town to the highway that would take us past the mountain on our way South. In reality, we were taking a country road around the other side of the mountain and through part of the National Park (and therefore experiencing flashbacks to my childhood when dad would find "shortcuts" while we were on road-trips....must be hereditary haha). I found the new route nothing to complain about though, as it offered a new view of the mountain, and was perfectly timed to see the sunset behind the mountain.

The mountain as we left New Plymouth

North side of the mountain covered in cloud

Our detour

Leaving the cloud cover

South side of the maountain, towards Oakura

I'll post more details on the trip soon :)