Things had cleared by the time I got up around 9 a.m. I had my shower, made a cup of tea and had some yogurt. Phoned Derek in Toronto and then to my parents in Windsor to check in and say hello and hear the horror stories about minus 20 something temps and snow.
I headed out and walked around the farmer's market for a bit and then went to Te Papa, the national museum. Great museum. New Zealand (and its physical beauty) are, of course, the result of volcanic activity and they had a great exhibit on volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis. This country is never free of the threat of Mother Nature. I took a look at the "Colossal Squid" which was quite disgusting -- I didn't know they actually had little hooks at the ends of their tentacles. And wheras regular squid may have little hooks, the "Colossal Squid" has not-so-little hooks. If I don't sleep tonight (or ever again) I will blame it on the "Colossal Squid". I moved on to less disgusting beings and learned something new today -- the kiwi bird is actually more of a mammal than a bird (more akin to the hedgehog). It actually has whiskers along with its beak. So if it has whiskers I figure it is almost catlike. The "Colossal Squid" did not have any whiskers (it also was missing both its eyes and most of its skin and is, therefore, most definitely not catlike and is not likely to ever snuggle up on a beanbag chair...)
The other exhibit that I quite liked was the "Sheepcam" which was to give you a sense of how the world looked to a sheep. I especially liked the "Bossy Dog" viewpoint!!
After looking around the museum for about 4 hours I headed out into the wind and walked along the harbour to Oriental Bay (the opposite direction from yesterday's walk). I quite liked this piece of public sculpture outside the museum area on the harbour...
The sun had come out quite nicely but is was windy so the salty spray was constantly coming over the seawall and coating my glasses. Nice to look at the houses up on the hills overlooking Oriental Bay -- what views they have (whenever they may actually be able to use their balconies) ...
I amused myself by watching seagulls trying really really really hard to get airborne over the harbour. They weren't having much luck and would get up in the air, turn out to sea and then get blown right back. I hope they didn't have anywhere important to go today.
I walked quite far along the Oriental Parade until the wind was just too much to keep going around the bend into the next bay. So turned back and popped into the Vista Cafe for a snack. Had the warm goat cheese salad with beets. which was just lovely, along with a glass of "Lake Chalice" savvie from Marlborough region. Then walked some more of the streets looking at the lovely houses before heading back to my room to relax and read.
For dinner tonight I headed back out to the harbour area to Wagamama. Wagamama is one of my favourite places to eat in London, England so I was happy to see they had a restaurant here and I had gyoza dumplings to start followed by the chili beef ramen noodle soup (and a glass of "Maven" savvie from the Marlborough region).
Walking back along the harbour I came across a lovely black cat with green eyes and just a whisper of white fur on its chest. Gave it a really good petting and got a lovely purr for my efforts. It definitely wasn't a straggly harbour cat, and when I moved on, it went into The Loaded Hog pub where I guess it makes its home. I was pleased it was there to say "hello" to me and give me some quality cat-time (unlike, say. a "Colossal Squid" which I wouldn't like to find sitting outside a harbour pub looking for a petting...)
It is quite cool tonight. It has clouded back over and there is a bit of rain. Oh well, we shall see how tomorrow dawns...
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