Big Trip

We caught the ferry into the city this morning for a bit of shopping, and then passed the afternoon in Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand. I think we all had slightly different highlights. Mine, of course, was seeing a Britten in the flesh for the first time (oooh, all that carbon fibre...). Max & Erin really enjoyed the discovery centres, where you could do things like looking at spiders (dead ones) under a microscope, and Sarah liked the excellent exhibitions on Maori culture. There was a full sized Maori meeting house, several other buildings, a Waka (a Maori canoe) and a selection of various musical instruments, among other things. My only criticism was that it didn't seem to be all that well organised - there was no clear starting point for learning about Maori culture, but it was still an excellent exhibition.
Celebrated the coming of the new year in a very understated fashion - I stayed up in the hope of seeing some good fireworks across Wellington Harbour, but had to be content with some small ones. It's still a fantastic view, though.