New Zealand Day 1

After a 12+ hour flight, I finally touched down in New Zealand! I was excited and happy, but my journey wasn’t over yet. After making my way through customs, I had to catch a connecting flight to Wellington. Auckland has an odd airport layout, so catching the connection required a 10 minute run through the rain. I made it through security with plenary of time, however, since my flight got delayed an hour and a half ?

After about 50 minutes in air, I landed in Wellington, and hopped in an Uber to my hotel: the QT Museum. After dropping some bags, I headed off to find some coffee. My walk led me to Fidel’s on Cuba Street. We got a latte and a smoothie and then walked up Cuba Street to the waterfront.

Wellington is such a cute little city with many shops and restaurants. It’s excellent for walking and has a really interesting mix of architecture. It really feels like a very liveable city.

We walked along the waterfront back to the hotel, where we moved our bags into our room. Next stop was the museum across the street: the Te Papa Museum. It is a huge museum with very in depth information about everything from the history of the Maori to the ancient fauna of New Zealand. There was a special exhibit about New Zealanders in World War I with these huge lifelike sculptures. Awesomely, the museum is free! (Donation optional)

After the museum, it was time for dinner. I had heard of a restaurant called Monsoon Poon before arriving and I wanted to check it out. It’s a South and South East Asian Restaurant with Excellent cocktails. We had a lovely meal, and then made our way to the grocery. We stocked up on some camping food. The grocery also had Gomtang instant ramen, amazingly! Then we headed back to the hotel where I immediately hit the bed and fell asleep ?