Wellington - A Capitol City

I very much like Archbishop John Dew of Wellington. He is very solid and a great host.

I began my trek through the Capitol by touring the Parliament Buildings. Like most museums, the tour was free. We first started out in the Beehive, which is the office of the Prime Minister and his staff. He is out of the country right now (in China) to build better economic ties. So far he has secured an agreement with the Chinese to finance ocean agriculture in New Zealand. He is due back on Monday to tell the nation about his trip. He is very well-liked and well-regarded. Initially, he was thought to be inexperienced, but he has shown comfort in the way that he handles the domestic and foreign affairs of state.

Anyways, the tour took us to the Parliament, which now only consists of the lower house. The upper house was done away with in 1950 because it seemed like redundancy in government and it was an efficient way to cust costs. One amazing feature of the building is the modern reinforcement of the building to make it earthquake-resilient. The New Zealanders have exported this type of foundational work to other countries to help them prepare for such natural disasters. We concluded the tour with a brush through the Parliamentary library.

I walked along the waterfront afterwards and noticed that it remains a vibrant commercial and marine waterfront, but it has some great artwork peppered along the walkways. Speaking of walking, I am exhausted because I walked 28,000 steps yesterday and another 26,000 today.

The waterfront walk was great. I love the colors that the city uses all along the park. They are bright and vibrant and connote a great use of energy. I like that the city produces this artwork for its residents and does not seem to pander towards tourists. The result is a sense of civic pride and confidence. It is a city on the edge too, with a sharpness to some of its architecture. It does blend a polynesian style into the English-style architecture and it seems to work fine.

The city was active with runners and exercisers. A great hoarde of people of all ages, many in their 70's, were running. The people seem fit and healthy. Twenty percent of the population smokes, but fifty percent of Maori's smoke (mainly women) so the other parts of the population seldom smoke. This is great.

I was so tired so I stopped to have an apple-rhubarb-ginger muffin and a flat white decaf to revive my spirits. It turns out I didn't need it. This loud group of tweeners with braces on their teeth, their mother, and a toddler rode on this cart-type bicycle and screamed the entire way and dang their bells to notify anyone in front of them that they were arriving. Well they had no need of those bells with the ferocity of their shrill voices and laughter. Everyone knew where they were. I even paused a few times to let them pass and get way ahead of me, but damn it, they kept turning around and looping back and forth. Oh, they were a noise menance. After the silence of Opunake, their screams pierced through me.

On my return, I visited Te Papa museum and I was absolutely stunned. This is a World Class Museum on five floors. It contains many historical pieces about the Maori and European history, and it shows contemporary artwork that has been showcased in places like Venice, England, and the U.S. My feet were throbbing because I wanted to stay in the museum longer than the 2.5 hours that I did, but I needed another coffee to revive my slow-moving legs. This is certainly worth a visit. Come to New Zealand.

From there I went to Cuba Street Pedestrian Mall to do some shopping, but then it dawned on me that I really don't have money. I do notice that when I shop, I am always looking for gifts for others. I never think about what I might want for myself. When I observed that about myself, I kept being drawn to the artists section of drawing pens and pencils and some parchment. I think I will etch out something while I am here.

I had a nice dinner with the Archbishop and a North Carolinian who is here to help parishes with stewardship. The Archbishop and I began talking about the KAIROS retreats for secondary school students so he set up some appointments with me for the next day to make a pitch. The meetings went very well.

I toured the Botanical Gardens, which were very hill. They were quite nice, but it is midwinter so I wasn't expecting many flowerings shrubs or trees, but some were still blossoming.

Afterwards I took another lengthy walk around the city. Since it has Massey and Victoria Universities, it is a youthful city. I like the way that the hills are used and buildings are connected. It fits together very well. The space has a translucent quality that it invigorating. I also like how the houses emerge from hills and arise from the land. They make bold statements to say, "I am here." I did not find any run down section of town or dilapidated housing. It all seems fresh and well-maintained.

Think about New Zealand as a possible vacation. It is worth the trip.