Escaping the country!

Well I finally made it out of Masterton for the weekend! I was on call all last weekend and ended up getting called in a couple of times, so my reward this weekend was to have a 4 day holiday. I left early Thursday morning on the train from Masterton to Wellington. I traveled with all of the business commuters who travel to Wellington for work. I was hoping to meet some relatives who were arriving in Wellington on a cruise ship, but unfortunately we didn't make any definite plans so I ended up doing my own thing. Wellington is a very nice city right along a beautiful harbor. Of course with my NW luck it was raining the entire day. Thankfully I was a smart NW girl and had brought a jacket with me! I found the information center near the Civic Square and was able to find some fun things to do in the area. I went on the cable car which goes up to the Botanical Gardens. I found out that Wellington is full of cable cars--for personal use. People live in very high spots around the city and to make it easier to get to their houses they put in cable cars to get to their houses. Very ingenious!
Later in the afternoon I went on a WETA Lord of the Rings tour. Weta by the way is an insect--it is also the company that does the special effects and costumes and other cool features of the Lord of the Rings and several other movies. The tour took us to several places around the city where they had filmed the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I didn't realize that the filming had taken place for 3 years and that they filmed all 3 films at once. So the actors became quite familar with the sights of NZ. We even saw where the hobbits went surfing in their spare time!
I have been fortunate to be able to stay with Gwyn's parents in Lower Hutt which is about 20 min from Wellington. It is nice to have connections when it comes to accomodations!
On Friday Gwyn drove up from Carterton with her 7 children--which to me is amazing that she would be willing to travel by herself for an hour with her 7 kids. The older 4 kids and Gwyn and I went to Te Papa (the national NZ museum). It reminded me of OMSI back home. It was pretty cool to see some of the displays and learn more about the history of NZ. They even had a giant dead squid on display that they found in the waters of Antarctica.
Today I spent the day with Gwyn's parents in the Lower Hutt area. Thankfully the weather was much better today so I could see more of the beauty of this area. It was nice to see the water. I have been on an island for 3 weeks and still have not been to the beach. I need to take full advantage of the fact that it is still summer and get to the beach soon!
Tomorrow I am running in a 7K fun run around the bay of Wellington. There also is a half marathon, but I didn't think I wanted to kill myself before heading back to work on Monday! In conclusion I have to say that I am thoroughly enjoying my time exploring NZ. I would love to work less and travel more, but I am excited to take advantage of every opportunity I have to explore this beautiful country. Hopefully I will be able to have many of my friends come and visit me while I am here! :)