Saturday, April 14 2018
My last full day in New Zealand before I leave tomorrow. So I want a little bit of a quiet day.
Walking down toward the waterfront to get some caches and finally taking my geocache no. 1000. 😀 An Earth cache. No more caches in NZ, I am pleased with the result.
Goal for the day is to visit he Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. I heard that you can use a day in the museum to see everything. The museum is free to visit and they have some permanent and some temporary exhibitions.
I wander the exhibitions for about 3 hours. Every country seems to have an exhibition about the great things their soldiers did in one war or another. Not my thing at all. I find the history of New Zealand more interesting. How the Maori and the European settlers came and how they changed the islands, which challenges they discovered and some before and after views on nature. For example, all mammals on New Zealand are imported because they had none before. Quiet an impact on the country combined with the changes to make farmland out of old forests.
What was less interesting for me was the exhibition of more or less modern art which filled ca. half of the museum. Had this bee photographic exhibitions, I would have spend some hours more. 🙂 An impressive museum, worth a visit.
Early afternoon and I planned to go fore some swimming in the public pool, which is a little bit out of the city center. By bus i took around 20 minutes. Always a nice way to see parts of the city, where you normally wouldn’t go to. The swimming pool was big, but compared to the ones I am used to, had outdated facilities. They had an under water rugby championship at the same time (worst game for spectators^^) so the area for laps was limited.
Back to the city by bus again (good to have purchased a 24h ticket). Last day in New Zealand should be concluded with a good meal. I found an Indian restaurant in the city center that had won some prizes and got good reviews so I waited until it opened for dinner service. I was a littel bit disappointed with the food. i have had better Indian food other places.
Back to the hotel to start packing for the long way home – luggage management. What to check in, what to have as hand luggage and all I need during the flight and on my visit to Singapore in an extra backpack. Most of it was done that evening and I watch some TV and update my blog. I got the check out time moved to 12:00 instead for 10:00, so I don’t have to worry about the time.