Wellington

Our quest for surf down the remainder of the west coast was not very fruitful so we headed for Wellington in order to catch the boat to the south Island. We booked our ferry and allowed ourselves a couple of nights in the city before crossing the Cook Strait. Wellington is a very attractive city, very green and liveable. The city is right on the water and has attractive trees running along it's streets and is surrounded by hills with luxury homes built on them. Everybody seems to be keeping fit, running, biking, or roller blading along the promenades by the water. We had a good explore around the city,the highlight being our trip to a huge museum 'Te Papa',which is Maori for house of treasures. There was some great exhibits but as often with museums, it was too much to try and take in it all in one day. But we tried! There was a great exhibit about earthquakes. It showed quite unnervingly how much of New Zealand exists along a fault line. A little boy around 4 years old decided to educate Ruth on what to do if a earthquake happens, “ You need to do the turtle”, he said.
“What's the turtle?”, said Ruth.
“You have to lie on floor and curl up like a turtle”, said the boy who promptly dropped onto the floor curled up into ball, face down.
After this we all entered a replica house where a force 4.5 shake was recreated for people to experience the feeling. The moment the house started shaking the boy looked very uneasy and grabbed the rail, giving a little moan.
“Well what should you do?”, said his mum.
“ARGHH HOLD ON!”, shouted the little boy.
“No, remember what should you do?”, asked mum.
“errrrrr, the turrrrrtle!”, replied the boy unconvincingly and refusing to release the banister.
Bless him.