At
8.30 am Ted went off to Plimmerton to try and get the van fixed while
I took the bus to town. The Te Papa Museum was still closed so I walked
to the cable car which goes to the Botanic Gardens and ambled through
the park, past the duck pond, to the top of the tree house and on to the
rose garden and Begonia House with café attached where I treated myself
to coffee and cake
It
is a beautiful garden and I walked out through the Memorial Park (a cemetery
from the late 19th century now bisected by a motorway) and took photos
from the bridge over the motorway.
This
road came out by the parliament buildings consisting of the Beehive (government
offices), parliament building with red carpet laid out as the Dutch prince
and princess were there and the government library in an older building
which a local thought was the original parliament.
A
little further along was the modern cathedral of St Paul inaugurated in
1995. From there I walked back along the waterfront to Te Papa where Ted
was waiting with the van.
The
garage had not been able to fix the fault, the water tank has split. We
will get a new van tomorrow when we get off the ferry at Picton. Ted and
I had a quick walk through the Te Papa Museum, it is beautifully laid
out and the geology regarding the formation of NZ and the fact that it
is on a fault line similar to Kobe Japan and San Francisco was very interesting.
The visual displays of earthquakes were very well done.
On
departing we saw the arrival of the Dutch prince and princess being presented
with Maori cloaks. We then went to town to get some more NZ dollars and
subsequently to Civic Square where Halloween celebrations for tiny tots
were in progress. We returned to the van via the waterfront.