Famous People....

After the Night of the Horse we decided we'd use our free day and night seeing the rest of the city. We went to a day spa near our hotel to try to book a massage (for me) and an eye treatment (for Suus) for that evening, On our way we stopped in a little courtyard to take a photo.




Only later did it dawn on me that the name of the pub/restaurant was the Bull and Bear. Appropriate for Timbo!! The day spa didn't have any room for appointments for us so they referred us somewhere else who could fix us up that evening.

Our first stop after that was going to be Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand. We'd heard that there were some Split Enz costumes in a "New Zealand in the 1970s" exhibit. What a treat it would be to see those!

On the way to Te Papa we took some photos of the harbor in Wellington; what a beautiful city!








The day was sunny and bright so it was hard to stay inside at the museum. I began the museum trip with a phone call home (that cost me around $30) while Suus looked in the museum shop. She found some greeting cards that featured artwork by Robin White, a relative of hers.

We went outside and ate some sandwiches that we had brought from Starbucks. When the ducks spotted us they got excited; they had heard that the sandwiches are good at Starbucks and I'm sure wanted to try some. They weren't going to get a chance, though, because I ate most of mine and Suus was uncharacteristally hungry and finished mine up. We both marveled at how clear the water was:




Here are some shots of the outside of Te Papa:







There were a lot of cool exhibits that we saw. Many, many exhibits on Maori custom and history. Here are a few museum interior shots:


Sorry Rene, I had to delete them, no-one could open this page anymore because there were too many pictures...


Upon emerging from the museum we took even more photos of the skyline which had begun to turn cloudy.







Suus needed a suitcase to take some of her purchases home in so we dropped into a luggage shop to make the purchase. As she was selecting the suitcase, we got into a nice conversation with the shop's proprietor, an older German gentleman. He asked us if we had seen "Lord of the Rings." We truthfully said no. He told us, that's too bad because my son is in that, he plays one of the main characters. His son's name is Karl Urban. The proud papa regaled us with tales of how Karl broke into show business (actually, he used to play the flight attendant on those airline safety films). He gave us a couple color copies of articles featuring his son and posed for a picture with Suus.



After the day's brush with stardom, we took the suitcase back to the room and then called a cab for our spa appointment. The spa manager, Edward, met us at the door and had us relax in the relaxation room where there were teas and comfortable floor pillows. I had an hour long massage (chakra massage) which involved mostly head, neck and shoulders. I must say it felt heavenly when the masseuse stroked my brow and seemed to wipe all the tension away. Suus had an eye treatment but she said later that she thought they were taking her brows off with the wax (the treatment included a brow tidy), We walked out of the spa feeling relaxed and happy; however, when we reached the building's vestibule, we found that we were locked in!! We tried to phone the spa using the intercom but got no answer--what were we going to do?? Before too long we heard Edward and the girls coming and they let us out, confirming that someone had accidentally locked the outside door.

The next day we were scheduled to fly to Auckland then drive to Hamilton for the next show so we tried to get some sleep.