Chapter 2: In Which Moose and Renee Survey the City (and learn some History)

It was a sunny and only mildly windy day in Wellington, Moose thought it would be a perfect day to take a trip on the historic Cable Car and survey the city from up high: he was totally right. They also visited the museum and learned some history and took a very brief walk in the botanical gardens; quickly deciding they needed their own day for full exploration.

Renee took Moose to Cable Car Lane (off of Lambton Quay [pronounced "key"] where she has done LOTS of wandering) and they purchased a round trip ticket before embarking. The car was very full on the way up, including a guy with a bicycle. Moose didn't like the many tunnels they had to pass through so he hid in Renee's bag most of the way up refusing to pose for any pictures.  Renee noted the interesting way the two cars moved on their cables and seemed to counterbalance each other. When they reached the top Moose got to sit on one of the "original" cable cars - it's been refurbished by the cable car society to look like it did when the cable car was shut down in the 70s.
Moose tried to get the driver to let him help with the gripping but he was unresponsive. Renee wasn't surprised by this since he was, in fact, made of plaster... All around the cable car there was fascinating information about the history of the cable car, it started in the late 1800s because hills are steep here and it was instantly super popular as both a method of transport and as entertainment. They even built a fancy house at the top of the hill where all the fancy people (or non fancy people dressed up fancy) would sit on lovely afternoons and have a nice cup of tea!



That building unfortunately burned down at some point (after being re-purposed many times) so you can't see it anymore (which is a shame, look how cool it was!!!) BUT they did build a new building up at the top and there is a cafe inside where you can, indeed, have a cup of tea while looking out at the city. Moose was not keen to have tea so they just took pictures of the amazing view!

Moose would also like to point out that Renee did a good job taking panoramic pictures but she does not know how to make them appear as such on her computer so you will just have to wait to see them until she figures that out.

RAWR I am a GIANT MOOSE come to DESTROY Wellington!!

Downstairs from the 1970s cable car and history there was a replica original (from when it opened) cable car that had been refirbushed using pretty incredible techniques. They detailed how they went about finding the correct color and decorative bits on the car - it looks really nice and shiny but Moose was unable to take a picture actually on it so that it could remain nice and shiny.

Renee really liked seeing the gripping mechanism used to slow/stop the cars since they had almost no electricity, just counterbalance which she got to learn more about in the next room where they had a replica of the original winding mechanism!

Can I help you Mr. Engineer?

THE WHEEL IS MASSIVE!!

The only thing that Renee was missing was someone to explain what was going on beyond the signs, Moose tried but his understanding was not much more than Renee's; if only her daddy had been there, maybe next time :P

Next came the botanical gardens which are HUGE and right around the cable car. Moose wanted to go for a little walk so Renee took him on a short loop which had some interesting sights! Next time they plan to walk the trail that goes from Lambton Quay up to the top of the Cable Car, or maybe they'll walk cable car down because hills are hard...

Not quite tall enough to tell the time from his shadow

You can see some cool star things up here and it's one of the first places they had weather and star monitoring

Moose thought he could make it down to the quay...but Renee reminded him that he is better than cannon fodder

 Having had their fun the pair returned down the cable car, with Moose watching this time since Renee said it was so cool and their were less people.

EEK! The other car is coming right at us! Good thing the track splits at JUST the right moment

Yay Cable Car Adventure!
XP: Age of the Cable Car plus the cost of a round trip ticket: 125

Chapter 1: In Which Petunia and Moose Make New Acquaintances

It has been two weeks for companions Petunia and Moose in the wild world of New Zealand and while they have not gone on any extreme excursions; some exciting sights have been seen and some new acquaintances have been made.
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Petunia enjoyed an outing around Wellington CBD (central business district) peeking out of Renee's bag: 

It was quite exciting, though being the first time traveling as such Petunia was not as outspoken as she could have been - as evidenced by no one saying hello to her.  They visited Te Papa Museum briefly and saw where in New Zealand they are...just ignore the feet.

The north island is smaller than the south island, but it's still pretty big, that little corner is where Wellington is, specifically the little "corner" is Island Bay where they are staying!



Further sights were seen and Petunia also got a brief introduction to rugby through "The Rugby World Cup Celebration" statue near Civic Square.  Although Petunia enjoyed the view she would prefer to just watch a game next time instead of being the ball.

Umm guys, a little help up here....

Next Aunt KC too the adventuring duo to Weta Workshop - best known for their work on The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit - to see a video and make some new friends.  When they arrived Petunia was almost squashed and eaten by the trolls outside!

She was able to get away, only to be taken by Lurtz the Orc who thought she would make a lovely addition to his pink collection.

Gandalf arrived on his white horse and scared Lurtz so he dropped Petunia and then she became friends with Gandalf - yay Gandalf!! Some other guys were there too, but Gandalf is Petunia's favorite.

After bidding Gandalf farewell Petunia, Renee and KC watched an interesting video about the projects Weta has worked on and a little more about the company, they contemplated going on the tour but the cost/coolness ratio wasn't right. In the video though Petunia thought she recognized her daddy, as it turns out he was around to meet her as well!

Is that you daddy?

It was quite the exciting day which was completed by seeing a movie at the Embassy Theater (where they did the big premiers), they saw The Way Way Back which was alright. Petunia gave it 3/5 stars because the story of the main character was pretty great but the rest of the characters lacked development.

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Moose journeyed several places (he was the original quest-taker) and met some new friends as well.

One of the new toys that Uncle Tim and Aunt KC have recently acquired is a boat for which to fish from, Moose loves fish and was excited to share his fishing capabilities with Renee.  The ride out was a little bumpy and cold but quite fun, Moose even got to drive a little bit!

The views were incredibly beautiful, who can argue with water and mountains?

Moose was initially confused about the thought of "bait" for fish, why not just use your teeth to grab them? As it turns out, using bait is much easier in deep water.

Moose even made friends with a couple of large sea-birds named Frank and Alice, they enjoyed eating the cast-off fish from the boat. To get these fish sometimes they had to get pretty close, luckily Moose was able to frighten them away with his moose call.

Frank and Alice

Dinner that night was home made fishcakes which everyone enjoyed a lot, except Renee, she thought they were ok which is pretty good considering she usually doesn't like fish at all. Overall it was a successful adventure which could pretty happily be repeated sometime.

Alice up close and personal

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Moose also went on a short tramp above and around Tarakena Bay where he met a nice head named Ataturk who gets to overlook a very pretty view of the bay. 

On the way back down and around Moose learned a little about a big boat that crashed a while ago due to heavy winds and poorly placed rocks. There is a little memorial piece for it which made Moose feel very small.

One of the propellers from TEV Wahine

There are supposed to be penguin boxes close by but they couldn't find any, although Moose did find a sign that made him miss home

Moose is used to having his own crossing

On the way back while discussing disasters talk turned to the recent earthquakes that happened before Renee and Moose arrived and from there to tsunami. Luckily the government of New Zealand has taken measures to make sure people (and mooses) know where they can be safe!

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Moose and Renee also did a fair amount of wandering around Wellington, Newtown, and Island Bay, further gaining relative directional sense. The cardinal directions are still a bit of a struggle, as are specific directions from place to place. Most recently they visited Petone which has many cute shops and several delicious bakeries. They also have earth-filtered artisan water which Renee tried and found quite good - very fresh.

They also visited one of the looms where special fabric from special sheep is woven.  These special sheep are called Stansborough sheep and their wool has a natural sheen to it that is so pretty that one of the costume people for LotR and the Hobbit used it to make Gandalf's robe and some other pieces.  Petunia is very sad that she missed this excursion since she loves Gandalf, and Moose forgot to take any pictures because he is silly.
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Elgamore also made a discovery on the way to playing with a brass band (which he follows Renee to twice a week):

Apparently I can get to Hogwarts from here

He also enjoyed listening to the folk jam session that Renee played in with friends of Uncle Tim and Aunt KC

UPDATED: XP: Size of Weta Workshop Facility (sq ft) + Height (in meters) of Ataturk Memorial + # musical groups Renee has played with since coming to NZ = 65,013