Wellington

Yesterday was our only full day in Wellington and we made the most of it.  Started off by riding the cable car to the uphill end of the botanical garden, which was the starting point for a short walk through a hillside neighborhood to Zealandia.  This is a very large fenced area which is a sanctuary for native animals.  Introduced species like stoats, possum, etc. have been trapped, poisoned and removed, so there are no predators.  This is important because when NZ separated from Gondwana, it had no mammals other than bats, so it's birds and reptiles developed no defenses from predators.  They even check you bags for stray mice before they let you in!

It was a wonderful place.  Of particular note:  Tuataras - lizard looking creatures that go back to the age if dinosaurs.  What's important is that they are not lizards, but are the top of the evolutionary chain for reptiles.  They are breeding them here and at the university for release here so that they do not become extinct.
Wetas - These are very large ( size of Randy's thumb and larger) native insects.  They are Tuatara food and Tuataras can survive on as few as 4 per year if they have to, although they eat more when they're available.  These insects are plentiful and people said they played with them as children.  They're completely harmless.
Takake - These are large flightless birds (size of a large chicken) that were once thought to be extinct.  There are now 250 in the world and they're doing we'll here.  The pair we saw were 18 and 19 years old.

Then shuttled back to the cable car stop and took an hour downhill stroll through the botanical gardens to downtown.  The gardens are huge and we saw only a tiny fraction.

In the evening was the Southeast Asia Night Market.  This is a bi-annual event, more festival than market.  It was held on the quay outside Te Papa, with some of the performances in Te Papa's outdoor amphitheater.  There was fabulous food from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam Nam, Singapore, Phillipines, Myanmar.  We loved the curry laksa (a seafood a noodle soup) made by The Malaysia High Commission Women, who cooked up a storm.  Ate more things, too, of course!

Performances included an Indonesian gamelan and many dancers and singers from all the countries.  It was fabulous and we stayed until it ended at 10:00.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that before the festival we watched the dragon boat races.  It was a big race weekend for these boats, which were kind of like large canoes.  There are two rows of paddlers, about 30 of them, with one calling out the stroke rhythm.  This was in Wellington Harbor.