Wellington

We are staying at the Museum Hotel in Wellington, also known as the Hotel de Wheels. When they built the Te Papa Museum, they moved the entire hotel over a couple hundred yards by putting it on rails. It is now a arty, comfortable hotel with a great location, since they decided not to move it very far from Te Papa. The picture makes it look a bit dreary, but it comes off as dramatic in real life.



Naturally, we began the day at a playground to try to wear out the little guy a bit. Then off to Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand. It is kinda tough visiting a museum with Ilona: she is pretty tough on museums, and she is very hard on Te Papa. Far too much entertainment, and a little fast and loose with science. She was particularly annoyed at a display of a modern possum flattened into asphalt illustrating a "modern fossil". It didn't help that the first area we went into was an entertainment area, requiring small amounts of money to work. The museum itself is free and extensive: far more extensive than a three year old can manage.