A word about beer in New Zealand. You can order a stubby, a glass, a Handle, or a stein. Alan at dinner ordered a stein. This was definitely the biggest stein I have ever seen and could have sated all 4 of us. Alan valiantly tried to finish it and came close, but no luck. A handle is a normal size stein and a stubby is a mini stein.
This morning we perused a Sunday food market before the museum opened. This is the National Museum of NZ and it was wonderful. They had great exhibits of the Maori culture as well as exhibits on NZ weather, earthquakes and how to guard against damage, and several floors of artwork. The whole museum is built on rubber and steel anti vibration plates as are most buildings in Wellington (a major fault line runs through the city). There had been 3 quakes in NZ this morning alone, with one registering 5.3 on the Richter Scale. It was in the area we are in now! We really could have spent more time there.
Then off to Palmerston North just for an evening on our way to Napier. So what could be better than cruising up NZ#1 with the azure blue Tazman Sea off to your left and listening to Jimmy Buffet on the radio? On the way we stopped at Foxton, population -millions of sheep and hardly any people, but one nice windmill. Sheep in NZ outnumber people by 30,000,000 to 4,000,000. Foxton looks like it is out of the 50’s. It does have a beautiful stretch of beach as far as the eye can see and I discovered a new Kiwi sport. One that Cheryl and I would even try if we had enough time. It’s Kite Skate-boarding. It looks quite tame compared to most Kiwi sporting endeavors.
