Wellington, New Zealand

Wellington, New Zealand. The day started out in a very special way. In New Zealand there is a special stone called Greenstone, or New Zealand jade. It is sacred to the Maiori and comes from the water. Our Kiwi friends had told us about it one night over dinner. In Napier I found a couple of items I liked but if you buy them for yourself they must be blessed by a Maiori priest or healer, or cleansed in a New Zealand river. Last night we invited the cultural ambassadors to sit with us for dinner and I was telling Ngairo that I had bought some and he immediately offered to bless them for me (us) as he is the spiritual leader of his whole family. As a sacred leader he is not allowed to be tattooed. We met the next morning for breakfast and had a lovely little ceremony. What made it even more more special is that I have a piece of Amber I brought that was my mothers. He immediately said "Oh your mother is so happy to be here and that you are on this trip"

He and his cousin, Miriata, have been on board this week teaching about the Maiori culture.

And then we went into Wellington.

The shuttle bus dropped us off at the Parliament building which you would swear is stone but is, in fact, wood. Apparently my photo of the building disappeared but maybe you can blow up the legend of it 😳 Wellington is not the biggest city in NZ but it is the capital.

Dalna went to the museum for an all day visit and Janis and I went to the cable car for the panoramic view.

Definitely worth it.

This intriguing sculpture is of Katherine Mansfield, a renown short story writer from Wellington. Her dress ornamentation is all words from one of her stories.

We took a long very, very windy walk down to the wharf to meet Dalna at the amazing museum of natural history, Te Papa Tongarewa..it's free and it's fabulous. I was so fascinated and had such a short time there I didn't take any photos. Sorry

We got lost, like way out of our way, to get back to the shuttle bus. Between the exertion and the cold wind Janis and I were down for the count on the Picton Day. So- no Picton for anyone.

On to Christchurch.

Stay tuned.