The Nation's Capital
Trip Start
Sep 13, 2006
1
67
85
Trip End
May 25, 2007
Wellington,
New Zealand
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
The ferry disembarks at Wellington, the nation's capital. While Auckland is the largest city in New Zealand, holding over 25% of its residents, Wellington is a good central location for the country's seat of power. We only had one night to spend here so we had to pick just a few activities to do. Since it was the nation's capital, we agreed on a visit to the Parliament Building and the "Beehive", where the federal government does its daily work. They had tours of the buildings but unfortunately the parliament was out of session for Easter recess.
Out tour was at an odd time so there were only five of us, which was great. While Julius has taught me all I know about parliamentary governments, the guide managed to answer a lot of questions we had about how it is done in NZ. The parliament in New Zealand appears to have a similar debate style to the Brits. While opposing congressmen and women in the United States just take turns blathering on and ignoring each other when they are on the floor of the house and senate, Brits and New Zealanders take a more active approach. We caught a radio clip of a debate of an anti-spanking bill in the NZ parliament last week and the opposition members actively booed and jeered whoever was speaking at the time. If any of you get C-Span, you can watch the same thing go down in the British House of Parliament. Every week the Prime Minister has to stand before parliament and spend an hour answering questions from all the members. There are lots of catcalls, boos and jeers throughout, either for the question or the answer. It is very entertaining. After the G-8 summit the opposition called in unison "Yo, Blair!" numerous times (after our president, of course). People are surprised that Bush doesn't have to go before congress and answer questions every week. Can you imagine?
New Zealand managed to create a new way of voting for representatives that brings many more parties and much more diversity to the house. It is described here. It took us a while to get our brains wrapped around it but once we understood it we realized it was brilliant. We were totally impressed that they managed to pull it off. The tour guide said that the New Zealanders were also amazed the referendum passed. Congress in the states would no more let a law like that pass than they would outlaw campaign donations. One of the committee rooms was also completely remodeled a few years back in a beautiful Maori theme. Artists were hired from various tribes around the islands to carve and weave pieces for the walls. We couldn' t take photos but there is a panorama of the room here.
That was enough activity for one day so we took it easy for the rest of the night. The next morning we went to the Te Anau National museum. The place was packed thanks to the Easter holiday but it was very interesting. It was a good mix of natural history exhibits (lots on volcanic explosions which are a common site here), Maori history and White New Zealander history. The natural history of New Zealand is really fascinating, with birds that managed to evolve without predators for thousands of years. Before humans came, the only mammals were bats. When land mammals were introduced by the Maori and the Europeans many of these birds went extinct. Now they are working hard to keep the few species left alive.
Our travels through the country showed us how much New Zealanders love their native species. The puffy little kiwi birds are now the national animal and are well protected (though still endangered). This love for native species is equal to the disdain the nation has for most of the introduced species. Europeans of time past decided that it would be a good idea to introduce animals like deer, possums, foxes, mongooses, scrouts and rabbits (and many more). With no natural enemies and plenty of flightless birds and eggs to eat the populations exploded. Now year round hunting and trapping has to be done to try and keep the populations under control. Nothing demonstrated this more than this week's "Easter Bunny Hunt" in Alexandra, a farming community on the south island. You heard right. Over 16,000 bunnies were killed this past weekend. Last year was 22,000. The hunt is described here and a news story is here. Be warned, if you love bunnies don't click on the links!
In an exhibit on immigrants showcased the Croatian immigrants and their contribution to the wine growing industry here. One famous winery belongs to the Babich family, the same name as great grandma. It is a common name in Croatia but we agreed that we would have to visit their winery when we got up to Auckland.
After the museum we headed north for a long drive to Taupo. We left less time for the north island so more distances had to be covered.
