On Wednesday (Oct 31), we traveled south from Martinborough to Wellington on the southern tip of the North Island. We traveled through some pretty rugged countryside.

A little update on the earthquake we experienced Tuesday afternoon: At the time we were told to get out from under the glass skylight. No apparent damage at that time. This morning 4 of the 8 panes had cracks that weren’t recognized until the early morning rain began leaking into the lobby. Even the winery we visited had a designated emergency evacuation point out by the vineyards in case of an earthquake.

But first we stopped at Ata Rangi winery. The owner was one of the wine making pioneers in the Martinborough area. He has some of the oldest vines in the area. One interesting observation was Ata Rangi like many NZ wineries is moving towards a more biodynamic, more organic and sustainable method of grape production. One aspect to eliminate pesticides is to plant rows of flowers every ten or so grape rows. This attracts beneficial insects which in turn attack undesirable pests in the vineyard.

We participated in an afternoon walk in Wellington, the capital of NZ. With a population of just over 200K, Wellington is full of striking architecture, particularly on government buildings. Somewhat like Napier’s history, Wellington experienced a massive earthquake in 1855 that raised the elevation enough to move the coastline 5-6 blocks further out. There is a lot of city-sponsored street art that is quite interesting. An interesting factoid about Wellington is that it is considered the windiest city in the world. It averages over 100 days of wind over 100 km/hr and another 50 of winds over 150 km/hr. Today it was WINDY.

Well, our day of Wellington sightseeing got a little sidetracked when a southerly front (think Antarctica) blew through with winds averaging 35 mph and the temp never clearing 52.

So we spent much more time at the Te Papa National Museum considered the best in NZ. It was worth it. Two floors of art, mostly modern, most of which was extremely creative and interesting, but some of which was above my pay grade on comprehension. There was a small, but interesting exhibit on the Women’s Suffrage movement that gave women the right to vote in 1893. There was an excellent exhibit of Maori artifacts which we could not photograph for cultural reasons.

But most impressive, and one that really got me emotionally, was one chronicling NZ participation in the WWI battle for Galipoli. Ordered by Churchill (?) to back up Aussie troops to secure the Turkish peninsula of Galipoli, NZ troops left the Suez Canal for Turkey eager for a fight. It was going to be a glorious battle, almost a party. The Ottomans proved to be more than an able adversary. Eights months later, the Allies prevailed, but not before almost 130,000 casualties were reached including almost 2800 NZ soldiers and 86,000 Ottomans. NZ would go on to lose six times that many on the Western Front. Much of the exhibit utilized verbiage from the many diaries kept during the campaign. Most impressive were the 2.5X actual size figures that magnified the horrors of war. Fashioned after real people, these dioramas used their actual diary quotes to portray their emotions. Sobering!

We then took in the Wellington Museum which houses one of the four best maritime collections in the world. Of particular interest was a section on the Wahine, an Interisland ferry, that ran aground in 1968 trying to enter Wellington Harbor during a fierce 100 mph storm. 51 of the 734 passengers perished.