Hitching from Taranaki to Wellington was a real treat! It took us 5 different hitches to get there, but we managed to get to Wellington in the early afternoon. One of the hitches we took was with a big truck. The driver was a little bored doing the road back and forth on his own so he invited us into his huge cabin. It was just a day after Oren declared that he wants to go on a ride with a truck, so we figured that NZ has completely turned on our side, and our next days are guaranteed to be good. The last hitch we took was defiantly in the top most 5! We got down in Whanganui and loaded our backpacks back to their place (on our shoulders). We took the sign "Wellington" and just played with it while walking to the junction, when a guy stopped and asked: "Do you need to Wellington?". Now we were sure. Ranginui (Father sky) and Papatuanuku (Mother earth) are united, and they are on our side. We promised to try and get the best pictures of NZ we can, for them.
The guy who picked us up didn't need to go into Wellington city, but since he is NZ born and raised, he took us all the way to the center of the city, to the exact house we needed. We stayed at a HIT house of Roger and Margaret, but since they were away, the house was kept by their friend Don.When we got to the house, Don had already gone to work and he was not expected to come back in the next two hours. In some places in the world, this might have meant that we had two hours to wait near our bags until Don's return. Since we already had some experience with kiwis, we knew that it will take us no more than 5 minutes to find a neighbor that will host our bags for a couple of hours. It actually took two minutes, because when we crossed the road to knock on the doors of the nearest apartment, we saw a girl coming out of her home. When we asked her if we can leave the bags at her place, she said that she will be away till late, but she works in a small cafe on Cuba street, named, obviously, "Fidel", a block from there. "You can leave the bags there", she said, and indeed we left it in a small storage room inside the cafe. Needless to say that this luggage storage was completely free of charge. We did felt a little uncomfortable, about all the good luck that sprinkled upon us from every direction that day, so we had a cuppa' in this place, just to give a little bit back to the cosmos.
We spent the afternoon wandering around the city center. It took us about 2 minutes to fall in love with the city. It is so alive, so fun, and also a little rough around the edges, just as we like our cities. Most of all, it really reminded us of Tel-Aviv. Cuba street is the city's cool street, full with cafes and small restaurants, a bit like Shenkin. It leads down to the center where a maze of small and large streets stretch all the way to the waterfront. Wellington is defiantly the cool little brother of the big, and rather boring Auckland. If you need to choose in which city to be stuck for a while in NZ, Wellington is our first choice.
We came back at the evening, took our bags and went to the HIT house where we finally met Don. Don Stewart is a fascinating character that popped out of a historical mystery thriller, where he plays the part of the absent-minded scholar that unravels the truth to the hero at the critical moment.
Don is an economist by profession, but his passion is for history. He had spent the last 30 years or so trying to convince the Egyptology society that that the whole dating of the events in ancient Egypt is wrong. The theory, which was presented by Prof. Immanuel Velikovsky in his 1954 book "Ages in Chaos", claims that there are 500 years in ancient Egypt history that were added artificially by the historians. According to this theory, events that were believed to have happened, for example, during the 18th-20th Pharaoh dynasties should actually be dated to the 14th dynasty, from which Velikovsky concluded that the two dynasties are actually the same dynasty and the separation between them is artificial. The starting point of Don's explanation is the verse from the book of Exodus (Shmot) that tells that the Israelis built the cities of Pithom and Ramases. According to Don, these two cities are essentially two different names for the same city. Pithom is the ancient name and the name Ramases was added by the biblical editor to explain to his contemporary readers where is the current location of this city rather than point to a different city that was built at the same time of Pithom. According to this theory, the new dating fits very well to current archeological findings.
One of the most interesting conclusions of this theory is that the whole bible can be regarded as a valid historical source, describing actual events. One example Don gave is the identification of the mysterious Queen of Sheba with the Egyptian queen Hatshepsut, which is commonly believed to have lived years before the time of king Solomon (971 - 931BC according to the article in Wikipedia). Fitting the historical and archeological findings to the bible stories, proves, according to Velikovsky's dating, that King Solomon was a real historical figure.
You might think that this is all just an historical mambo-jumbo that is interesting only for some old professors and have the same relevance to present days as the Egyptian kings themselves, but, according to Don, this can't be more far from the truth. Reading differently the history of ancient Egypt (and therefore the whole history of the Middle East) brings a new understanding to the origins of the nations in Middle East, and has a huge importance to the solution of the two main problems in the Middle East, according to Don: the Israeli-Palestinian problem and the problem of the Kurdish people. Don believes that these two problems are interlinked and has origins as ancient as the region itself.
You can surf Don's website, or Google Immanuel Velikovsky to get a deeper insight about this thesis.
Since we have almost no knowledge about ancient Egypt, we were in no position to try to estimate whether this theory makes sense. However, we spent hours listening to Don, until the middle of the night and we did it again on the next night. Don is an encyclopedia came to life, with impressive knowledge about the subject. When he speaks about the bible, he can give an exact reference and the full quote (in Hebrew and English).
On our second day in Wellington, we did the obvious city tour. We went up in the funicular to the viewpoint above the city. This was a real waste of 12$. The upper station is adjacent to the botanical gardens, but after being in too many of them, during the trip, we decided to skip.
Afterwards we went to see the parliament house and its executive wing - the Beehive, which is a modern style building with 10 stories, and also a good competitor in the "World ugliest government building" contest. We figured that since NZ is so remote, they heard about modern style building and heard that it suppose to be ugly, so when the plans for the building were presented, they must have said: "Oh, it's so ugly, so it must be really modern, and modern is good. Lets build it!".
On the other side of the street there are some of the world largest wooden buildings, although it seems that the architect has made every effort to make them look as if they were made of bricks. We didn't really see the point for it.
We came back to the HIT house, and made a quick visit to the local Jewish center. It wasn't due to any religious reasons, but due to a much more earthy one. We really missed some Israeli food and Don told us that we can find some in the small shop near the synagogue. Indeed we found a pack of Tehina from Israel, which made us very happy, and went straight to eat it back in the house. 8 months away from your country can make you really miss some of the most daily and common products from home.
Lilya had a filling in her tooth that fell earlier, so she went to a dentist. The clinic was in a building that used to be a hotel back in the 60's and hosted the Beatles when they were in Wellington. There was a large picture of the fantastic four (for our young readers, I mean the Beatles, not the ones from the movie...) on the roof of the building taken back in 1964, with the crowd cheering bellow.
The dentist himself was much more contemporary. In fact, he was much younger than us, but he did a good job. In the ultra modern treatment room, there was even a flat TV above the patient head, so you can watch nature movies while the doctor does his excavations in your teeth.
The next day was rainy, which is always a sign that it is time to leave. We had an hour and a half in the morning before we had to be in the ferry dock, so we decided to visit the Te-Papa museum (NZ national museum), which has a round entrance fee of zero dollars. Big mistake! The Te-Papa needs at least a full day, and spending so little time left us unsatisfied. This museum is a real gem, and you shouldn't miss it if you are in Wellington.
We had a 3 hours cruise with the ferry that connects the North and the South islands. Even tough the view should have been spectacular, going through the Wellington bay, into Cook straight and into the Queen Charlotte Sound on the South Island, the weather was gloomy, which never do justice with New Zealand's view. After 3 hours we finally arrived to Picton - the starting point for our trip in the South Island.
Tip 2: Have a coffee or two on Cuba street and forget of all that troubles you.
Tip 3: When you are in Wellington, don't miss the Te-Papa museum. In fact if you need one reason to come to Wellington, Te papa must be it.
Tip 4: Join HIT! Haven't we already told you that?
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