First Day in Wellington

Hey, those flights weren't so bad! The flight to LA seemed to stretch on forever: I was stuck in a middle seat for four and a half hours with only my Kindle for company. The flight to Auckland, though, was great! I spent seven of the twelve hours sleeping. For the other five, I had access to dozens of movies, shows, and video games, plus an endless rotation of meals, snacks, candy, and tea. The plane was so tall that I could stand up easily at my seat, and it didn't even have the classic nauseating airplane smell. I felt comfortable and was wide awake when we landed in NZ at 6:30am (although this is probably because my body wanted it to be mid-afternoon). My domestic flight to Wellington was just as pleasant, with a minimally invasive security check and a laid-back boarding procedure, in which people trickled into the plane on their own time about 20 minutes before the flight. I feel like these people don't stress about anything.

The studio where Lord of the Rings was filmed is in Wellington, so there are references to Middle Earth everywhere. This enormous Gollum is hanging in the Wellington airport, which is actually pretty small. The whole city is only slightly larger than Rochester, even though from my experience so far it seems to be just as busy as some neighborhoods in Chicago. Right now at 8 am, the traffic is nonstop outside my window. The phenomenon of people driving on the left side of the street has been confusing for me, from the time that I almost got into the cab driver's seat to the time that I felt like a reckless pedestrian for checking the wrong lanes before crossing the street.

My hotel didn't have an early check-in, so I spent the afternoon walking around the Central Business District of Wellington. This building is the concert hall where the NZSO concerts in Wellington will be performed. It's not the prettiest thing I've ever seen, but it's right on the waterfront.

Wellington is like San Francisco in many respects, including the wind and the rain. It's been drizzly ever since I arrived. This is a photo of the beautiful bay, which you can walk all around as a pedestrian and which is lined mostly with government and cultural buildings. The national museum is free, so I explored several of its exhibits yesterday. It shares many similarities with the Canadian national museum, which I visited last summer. The history of these two countries is strikingly different from America's, what with their relatively peaceful transitions in and out of British influence and their less violent, more conscientious acknowledgment of indigenous peoples. It makes the national museum kind of boring compared to America's, in a way--way less pomp over the founding documents, many more displays of fish hooks and adzes. The exhibits were presented in NZ's two official languages, English and Maori (the language of the Maori people, who themselves had immigrated here around the 16th century from other Pacific islands like Tonga and Fiji).

For lunch I went to a cafe at a food court and had mince pie. As I understand it, mince pie is just low-grade meat, chopped up with a light gravy and put into a pie crust. New Zealanders love pies. There are pies available everywhere, including fusion dishes at ethnic restaurants like "kebab pie" and "curry pie". This pie in particular had mashed potatoes instead of a top crust, and it came with a squeeze bottle of ketchup to squirt all over the potatoes, so I obliged. It tasted pretty good, if a little bit plain. I think this dish must be like the hot dog of New Zealand.

Good thing McDonald's is running its "Tastes of America" promotion in case I get homesick. The New York burger has mustard, onion, and pickles (um, hello? That is Chicago style!). The California sandwich has sweet chili sauce and summer mayo.  I don't know what summer mayo is, either. Ah yes, and the Texas burger, which looks especially unhealthy, has a "smoky Texas sauce" on it.  I'm pretty confident that smoky Texas sauce is barbeque sauce. So why call it Texas sauce? Is it because barbeque is the word for grill here, and the word would make people think of the taste of char? I don't know. I'm so mystified that I might actually have to order McDonald's!

Today I am moving into an apartment hotel, where I will be able to stay for two weeks. I also get to visit the offices of the orchestra--and maybe I'll find a practice room! I hope to purchase a hair dryer, too, although it's so humid here that my hair will probably be vaguely curly and messy no matter what I do.