Got up early-ish today as the German girls got in around 4:30 this morning, then got up at around 8 this morning and just made such a load of noise!! They had left all their stuff all over the place (shoes everywhere, clothes everywhere, stuff everywhere that I had to make room to put my bits and bobs down!!) so they just took an absolute age stuffing things back in their backpacks, doing their hair, and all that sort of thing. Gees, girls are just so messy sometimes! They checked out though thankfully, so we don't have to put up with them anymore!

Went on the cable car, which was only a short ride, but a very nice ride at that. Walked back to the city through the botanical gardens, which was very lovely. They also had a scuplture walk and my eyes did a double take when I saw they had a Henry Moore sculpture there! So, of course I had to go off and find it. Cue me wandering around trying to get to where this sculpture was - you'd think they'd have lots of signs in this place - but no! It was still lovely walking through the gardens though - seeing lots of trees, flowers, there was even a duck pond anda children's playground! I am not the best at maps, so obviously I got a bit lost wandering around.....but whilst visiting the herb garden, I was just surveying the landscape and then I saw the Henry Moore from afar! Yay! So, I wandered off down some path and finally got there, but also passed several other lovely sculptures getting there. There was a great big funnel-looking sculpture that was called 'Listening and Viewing Device' which was cool and of course I stuck my head inside it. Couldn't see much, but I wish someone could have taken a picture of just my legs sticking out at the bottom....but of course no one was around!! Dang!

The Henry Moore was gorgeous, as most Henry Moore's are (well, to me anyways). Called 'Inner Form' - it's been in Wellington since 1988. It looks quite at home on the little hill where it stands. I took quite a few pictures :D but I won't bore you all with them!

After walking around all morning, I decided to gather myself together again and have a bit of a rest back at the hostel. I'm staying at the Base Wellington, which seems ok though the kitchen is a bit small and it is quite noisy as all Base hostels have their own bar's. No soap again in the toilets (does soap cost a lot in New Zealand or something) so my paper soap is coming in handy yet again!
After being in the hostel for an hour or so, two new room mates come in! They're from the Stray bus; Coni who is Swiss, and Andrea who is German. They both look tired, but I pursuade them to go to Te Papa and we can have a look around together. The other girl who was spark out asleep also comes back - her name is Catherine - but she's had a long morning and so stay's in the hostel. We agree to go and have a drink later together though, which is cool.

Yay - I met some nice people at last!!

Te Papa is a massive museum!! We only visit a couple of floors (the musuem has 6, though the ground floor is counted as the first floor and only has a shop, but there are still 5 levels of exhibits) before we are too tired to carry on! There are lots of interactive things at the museum, including a huge map of New Zealand that's built into the floor. It is built with touch panels, so you can step on or touch certain parts or certain cities on the map and then you get to learn something about that place, or see pictures from that place. It's pretty cool!
We also saw the colossal squid (which is quite disgusting) and even created our own squids online! Apparently they grow day and do stuff, so I can check back on the museum's website to see what my squid has done! I know it's a kid's game, but it's fun! :D I called him Jelly Toes :D

Get back to the hostel, faff around for quite a while, have some dinner, and then we go out for a really late drink! We saw a sign earlier that said cocktails for $5, but by the time we got to where the bar was, it was shut! It wasn't even 11pm and a bar had shut for the evening? Wow. So, we ended up just going to a place round the corner from us that had some live music. A guy was there with his guitar and could hold a good tune, so we went and sat in there for a wee while.

So, it was finally really nice to meet some nice people and be able to hang out with them for the day! I didn't feel too much like an old fogey either, even though neither Andrea nor Coni could believe that I was 32. They thought I was in my early 20s (which is better than the girl from Oman thinking I was in High School!) but seeing as I act like a big kid most of the time, I guess it makes the difference! :D

Off to bed, ready to have another look around Te Papa tomorrow!