Te Papa Day

After being forced inside for several days due to bad weather and a cold I was fighting, we decided to catch the European Masters exhibit at Te Papa. Te Papa is the national museum of New Zealand. It's free, but special exhibits like European Masters have a fee (I think it was $22). We saw a painting by Degas, van Gogh, Renoir, Monet, and Picasso, as well as many other paintings. There was a painting of Goethe that showed that he was a pretty handsome guy! We were a little disappointed in the exhibit; there weren't any favourites that stood out to us except maybe a cubist painting of a dog. It was pretty amazing in the Monet to see how he painted the water.


The wind was CRAZY windy. Here's a view from a little outdoor area behind Te Papa on the waterfront.


The red trees in the background are the Pohutukawa, known as the New Zealand Christmas tree because it usually blooms at this time every year.



Bryce and I were in a real cave like this one last year. Animals like the huge moa fell into sink holes; their bones are later recovered in the caves.

They had a mock excavation pit for the kids, which they loved.


After Te Papa we went to grab some gelato (I had sour apple, mmm) nearby. That was probably one of the windiest walks I've ever been on; the wind was ferocious. As we sat in the cafe with our icecream (if we had gone outside it would've blown away) we watched the car parked in front of the cafe rocking from side to side in the wind. I got a surprise phone call while I was there from my sister; that's the first time someone from the States has called us!

Off we went to the hardware store. We got a little side tracked and went to the appliance section, where we drooled over such conveniences as hand mixers and BBQs. I think we miss our stuff a little. We love the garden section, it still seems so exotic to us. Here's some fern trees:

And you can buy your very own pohutukawa!