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Saturday 02nd June 2007
Journal brought to you by Sophie, who is "soaring, flying"
Today we had a very busy, fun filled and educational day. It started off with a trip to the Te Papa museum with Oli, James and Mike. This was awesome. There was loads of interactive stuff and amazing displays. Best of all it was free! I could not believe it. It was just as good as the British Museum and they probably charge you loads to go in. I have just looked it up (yes, I know I am sad) - you have to pay an extortionate nothing. Apparently it is free. SO why on Earth did my school always charge us a fortune to go there??? ANyway the point is it was good fun. The first floor we went to was filled with exciting things about earth quakes. I learnt alot. Like, for example, that the North and South Island of New Zealand were connected as little as 18,000 years ago. ALso there is a major fault line running through the South Island which has caused several dramatic earthquakes and volcanic explosions. There was this brilliant display where you had to stand in a make shift house and they shook it around like you were in an earthquake. It was so fun. There was also this new exhibition on (for kids) where you had to work out who had killed this Doctor by working out alphabet and animal clues. James and I had a ball doing it and we discovered who the murderer was too! (Ms Anastasia van Abs, safari guide (and suspected poacher) for those interested). However we couldn't enter the competition because apparently we were too old and also we weren't Kiwi residents. Ruuuuude.
The third floor was abit of a random mix of things about animals and people and this crazy video about birds which Tami liked. It had a reference to George (the cat) in it as well, which I thought was quite exciting. This is the place also where Oli, Tami and Mike mysteriously disappeared. We found Tami about an hour and a half later and it turned out they had all gone back to the hostel for lunch, leaving me and James to wander round! The fourth floor was based on the Treaty of Waitangi. You may remember this from our Bay of Islands entry because that is where it was signed and I trekked up the hill to visit the site where it happened. To refresh your memories the Treaty was an agreement, in Maori and English, that was made between the British Crown and about 540 Maori rangatira (chiefs) in 1840. It occured due to unrest amongst the Maori people about the English domination of their country. It basically declared that the Maori people ceded to British sovereignity but retained their full rights of ownership of their lands, forests, fisheries and other possessions; and that the Maori would have the rights and privileges of British subjects.
The fifth floor was an art exhibition. To be brutally honest I am not an art fan - it does not interest me in the slightest. Fair play to anyone who can paint, I really admire them but I have absolutely no skill in that department (as my Mother who did my art homework for me rightly knows) so I don't find it interesting. IN any case there were pictures there that even I could have drawn and that was saying something. It looked like someone had thrown a couple of tins of paint at one and entitled it "The inner trauma of a passionate yet severely depressed sheep shearer". The top floor was full of jewellery, gold and silver cutlery and other precious metals. It was a bit boring. James and I lasted about 5 minutes up there. When we met back up with Tami she wanted to do this crazy going back in time thing so we left her to it and went shopping in the posh district of Wellington. We bought nothing although there was a nice pair of shoes. I need to throw out my heels now Mother, the bottom fell off and I don't think even a World Class cobbler could fix them. It will be a sad moment when they go in the bin.
After that we met back up with Tamara who said the exhibition wasn't as good as she thought it was going to be but there was a cool bit in the middle where her image was projected onto the wall of a room and she got to change the colour of her skin. Apparently there was the choice of flower patterned skin or purple skin and other crazy things like that. I think she really enjoyed herself.... We all went to another part of town to do some more shopping and then Tami and I bought tickets for HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL THEATRE PRODUCTION! When we had found out it was on last night we nearly fainted in excitement.
We went back to the hostel and had dinner (I had a jacket potato with cheese and beans and veg just to let you know Mother) and then got ready to go to the show. It was absolutely brilliant! The cast were amazing and they did all the dances like out of the film. We both sang along like complete idiots and although at first we were in seats with "restricted viewing" we then moved and got a good view. I want my ipod back so I can listen to all the soundtrack :( It was so good to go to the theatre. We both hadn't been for ages and it was a nice change from watching films or going to the cinema. We then had icecream and went to bed.
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