We had another relaxing morning, eating breakfast and drinking tea looking out at the view over the Wellington Hills and the harbor.
We drove to the Mount Victoria look out for 360° views of the city and the surrounding hills.
The green belt around Wellington was particularly noticeable.
We continued a little ways up the road to a park so that my husband and son could visit the lord of the rings filming site “Hobbit Hollow”.
After our visit to mount Victoria we drove over to the Weta workshop where they fabricate props for movies and also museum exhibits. We went on a 45 minute tour of the studios where we learned how they make models, molds, and Cass in order to make, for example, 50 helmets, all exactly the same. We also saw examples of 3-D printing and how they added hair done models. Of course, there were plenty of examples of props that they had made. Our tour guide gave us lots of interesting insights on things they do to make the props function the way they need to with the actors in the movies, for example, some of the materials they use are very light, but sometimes the props need to be happy, so they add weights in to the prop so that it has the right weight when the actors pick it up.
After a quick lunch back at the apartment we went to Te Papa, the national Museum of New Zealand, where we visited exhibits on the Maori, the native wildlife, the cultural history, and the many invasive and non-native creatures they currently live in New Zealand. One of the coolest was the colossal squid, the only actual squid of it’s type on display in a museum in the world. It’s not the longest squid, but it is the heaviest. It was found 1.5 km below the sea, where few other things live. The exhibit pointed out that no other place on earth is as little explored as the deepest parts of the ocean.
We went out for dinner at a restaurant on Cuba street called for Fidel’s after Fidel Castro. It was eclectic.
On the way home I realized that my legs were swollen, particularly my calves, so currently, I am in bed with my feet propped up, hoping the swelling will go down soon. I also took some medicine. I have not had anything like this happen since my first pregnancy, so it’s a little scary. I’m guessing I have just been on my feet too much recently, or maybe have been using my muscles in new ways that irritated them and caused swelling.
Our plane to Christchurch is fairly early tomorrow morning, and I still need to pack my bags, so I’m hoping that either the resting or the medicine will help soon!
Our Family Online School Experiment 