Wellington

March 28
Wellington

Today was my last visit to Wellington and the last time I’d be in New Zealand during this contract. The plan was to meet up with my friend again, Lex, and just hang out for a while with him and one of the dancers from the ship (Lindsey) who also knows him. We met up around 12:30 and headed straight for lunch seeing as Lindsey and I hadn’t eaten yet.
Lunch was good, Lindsey and I spit two dishes, one was a breakfast platter, the other a burger. One of the things I’ve been most impressed by in this part of the world is the quality of their burgers. Considering burgers are more of an American stereotype, New Zealand and Australia have mastered the art of make burgers. Also, with this being our last day in NZ, Lindsey and I wanted to spend what was left of our Australian money. The meal with drinks cost 57.50NZ, we had 56NZ…and they gave us a 1.50 discount – nice. But enough talking about lunch…
Next we headed towards Lex’s neighborhood where he said they were having a block party, something I didn’t want to miss. When we got to this park area the sidewalks had a bunch of stands set up selling crafts, a few people cooking up sausages, and a stage set in the middle where one guy was beat-boxing (vocal percussion) and another was looping tracks and freestyle rapping over them. I’m not the biggest fan of rap and really never listen to it when given a choice, but what this guy was doing was absolutely amazing. Freestyle rapping means that they make up lyrics right there on the spot, something that I have actually tried doing many years ago. And this guy was improvising rhymes, stories, messages, and really just a long political poem to the rhythm of the other guy beat-boxing. Meanwhile, I’m sitting on the hill in front of the stage watching all the hippies dance, which was pretty humorous in itself. But it was a really nice time being able to go to a local festival and feel what the vibe of the city is all about, something you can’t really get on a tour. After hanging around there for a bit we realized we were running short on time, said our goodbyes to Lex, and began walking back to the shuttle drop off point.
It was a really nice day though, even though not as exciting as getting lost on a mountain, days like today are some of my favorites cause you get to actually feel like you live in the city for a second instead of treating it as a museum exhibition where all you try to do is see everything possible. Just being able to go to a great place for lunch and a block party with a friend is the perfect day, so a big thanks to Lex for hosting us and I hope to see him sometime soon in Chicago! Thanks for reading!