Some Wellington Highlights

Our time in Wellington has been a bit of a blur- lots of great things to see and great people to meet.  We've been lucky enough to meet a few new friends through couchsurfing.com, I've said it before and I'll say it again, it is an awesome organization and we've been having a great time exploring the pubs and trying out all the good beers on tap here (I've discovered I love Porters, who knew?).  While it would be impossible to share every little detail with you, here are some highlights I wanted to share:

The National War Monument

 

 

Every township or even village we have gone through has some sort of memorial in honour of New Zealanders who gave their lives in war.  This is the national monument, on the top of a hill overlooking the harbor.  It has names dating back to WWI and there flowers and letters from loved ones scattered around the sides of the room.  Whatever you feel about war it is always moving to see how countries chose to show appreciation.

There isn't a story behind this door- I just liked it and it is just up the street from our flat.

One of the coolest things we've done here is to drive out to Lyall Bay to see the Marine Research Center.  It is only open to the public a few hours per week, the rest of the time it is used to research the creatures and plants that live in Cook Straight.  They have Octopuses (Octopi?) in three separate tanks- 1 is a female that just laid 3000 eggs which will be put into the ocean once they hatch (the mama will die, they only mate once in their life and then the male and female die).  The other 2 are males and really big, probably 6 or 7 feet long.  We got to watch one get fed, it eats a whole crab every day- it was really cool.  I think they might be my new favorite sea creature.  The research center also houses a huge touch tank (I think Sky is holding a hermit crab but I can't remember) with sea stars of all sorts, little crabs, including one species of crab that builds a camouflage for itself out of bits of seaweed and whatever it can find, super cool.  We also saw some cod, a scorpion fish a hag fish (also known as a snot eel, charming name no?) and a smattering of other fish that live just off the coast. 


I hope you all have a lovely holiday and new year!!

Heaps of Love,
Kaitlyn