Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located on Southernmost part of the North Island. Smaller then Auckland, it has even more hills.

The shore drive is called "Oriental Parade". This is where the cold and cruel southerly wind (!) blows. When we visited, it was wintertime, yet it was far from cold and cruel, you could have mistaken it for summer.

While Peter delivered his lecture at the University in Wellington, I climbed what there was to climb: Mt. Vickie. The steep hillside was thickly settled, and I kept hitting dead ends. After the third time, I asked for directions. The kind woman led me through her and a few neighbors' backyard until I was in the park, on the signed foot path. I mention this to show how forthcoming people were. There were several other occasions when I wasn't simply given directions but taken to my destination. Restaurant and hotel workers were mostly kind too even though it is not customary to give tips.

The major tourist destination in Wellington is the museum: Te Papa. We enjoyed looking at the huge war canoe which could accommodate as many as 100 men, the carved ceremonial and storage buildings, green stone weapons, various musical instruments, among them a flute made out of the bone of a certain Mr. McLean. Many maori families cherish some treasure (toanga) which they have carefully preserved for several generations. These objects may be paddles, balers, axes, bowls, dogskin capes, shell trompet, bone flute and the like. Not only the physical objects have been passed down but their stories as well. The family usually keeps the toanga in a ceramonial building and brings them out for occasions. Some have found their way into museums. In the museum, there are Maori as well as English titles explaining the oral history of each object but not much scientific (historical, archeological or anthropological) explanation. It seems like such treatment is thought disrespectful. After a short visit at the museum, we rented a car and started our cross island adventure. Peter did the driving, bravely on the left side of the road.