Wellington

This was our first destination in the North Island. To get here we had to get a 3 hour ferry from Picton in the South Island. This is the only way to travel between the two Islands if you are driving as there is no tunnel or bridge. Wellington is New Zealands capital city. The earliest name for Wellington, from Maori legend, is Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui. In Maori it means ‘the head of Maui's fish’. Maui, the fish became the North Island. Evidence of early Maori settlement and cultivation can be found at sites all around the Wellington peninsula. It has a population of around 180,000 which makes up 4.5% of New Zealands population, and it lies at the bottom of the North Island acting as a gateway to the South. Locals refer to it as the creative capital and the most famous Wellingtonian is Peter Jackson, film-maker of Lord of the Rings and King Kong.

Wellington is a small compact city and has its fair share of hills. We had been told that Wellington was similar to San Francisco because of this. We spent two nights here in a hotel overlooking the botanic gardens. These gardens were very nice and led a path to the city center from our hotel. We spent a bit of time in these gardens which offered a great view over the city.















We spent an afternoon in the Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa. Te Papa is New Zealand's bold and innovative national museum and a recognised world leader in interactive and visitor-focused museum experiences. They have some great collections of fossils and we even got to see the biggest Squid ever discovered - the Colossal Squid. It is the only complete colossal squid on display in the world! It has eyes the size of a football and pupils the size of an orange. These are the largest animal eyes in the history of the animal kingdom, measuring about 27 cm across. Another incredible feature of the colossal squid is that the eyes are equipped with light organs — great for seeing in the dark. Vision is very important to the Colossal Squid. They use their eyes to see and catch prey, to watch for predators, and to see each other. With huge eyes and built-in headlights, the squid is well equipped for life in the dark depths of the Southern Ocean.

The squid was actually caught by accident as a New Zealand fisher boat pulled it up as it was hauling its load in. Luckily a team of marine experts are legally required to be on board to ensure that only the correct fish is taken. They instantly recognised the squid and claimed that it would die so they froze it and brought it back to Wellington where it has been on display ever since. The reason they claimed it was going to die was because it wouldn't let go of its prey and as a result of this it was too close to the surface. These squids spend all their lives at the deepest parts of the ocean and this is therefore why no one has ever seen one before. Not only were we able to view the only complete colossal squid on display in the world we were also able to watch the process of what it took to get it there.

There is also some other very interesting collections including the huge suspended skeleton of a pygmy blue whale, which was hit by a container ship off the North Cape of New Zealand in 1994. It is thought that the whale was probably resting at the surface after an attack by killer whales when it was struck. Scratches on its body were evidence of the attack. The impact of the ship smashed some of its ribs and left the dead animal wrapped around the ship’s bow. The whale was towed to Motutapu Island in Auckland Harbour where it was hauled ashore and its flesh and blubber cut away (‘flensed’). The bones were then enclosed in sea cages where sea lice (little meat-eating crustaceans) cleaned off the remaining flesh. Te Papa and Department of Conservation staff, along with some volunteers, further cleaned the bones and then left them to bleach in the sun. The whole process took many months. Afterwards, the skeleton was brought to Wellington where it was steam-cleaned to remove more of the oil. The whole skeleton was re-assembled at Te Papa in October 1996.

The 20.6 metre skeleton of the pygmy blue whale hanging in the exhibition was that of an adolescent male. Fully grown females of this species can grow to twenty-seven metres long, while the males grow to twenty-four metres. Blue whales are the biggest creatures on earth today and perhaps the biggest creatures that have ever lived on the globe.

These 2 collections were part of the X-ray Room feature in the museum. This is a collection of many different fossils of marine animals and is known to be one of the largest in the world. It features some rare exhibits such as the beaked whale that some species of have never been seen alive. Scientists think that, after sperm whales (which can dive 2000 metres deep and stay underwater for 80 minutes), beaked whales can dive the deepest and stay under the longest of all cetaceans (aquatic mammal such as whales, dolphins, walruses, seals etc.).

Other interesting fossils were that of the large Shark-Toothed Dolphin, the Great Giant Shark and the largest shell fish ever found.