A Big Day out in Porirua and Wellington

On a weekend in early March, we took the train over the hill to Porirua, which is just out of Wellington. Our main purpose in doing that was to visit Pataka, a very funky little museum in the museum / library / cafe complex there. There were a number of exhibitions on display: Pubs of the Past, Tukakahumai, the Feu'u Family, People of the Cedar: Art of the Pacific Northwest, and (my fave) Painting for Joy: New Japanese Painting in the 1990s. Check out their website at: http://www.pataka.org.nz/

The shiny-eyed sculpture above is of a tuatara, an indigenous reptile that is one of the oldest living species on earth.

After ambling around the waterfront of Porirua -not quite as glam as Wellington's - we happened upon a mini-golf (sorry! Adventure golf) course. So, of course we had to play. By some miracle, Dan won by two points. I don't know how that happened, but, honestly, some people are just bad winners...


We followed up all that excitement by heading back into Wellington to catch the final night of Doubt at Circa Theatre on the waterfront. Set in a Catholic school during the late 1960s, against the back-drop of the Vietnam War, it's supposed to offer a critique of the political climate in Bush's America (similar to The Crucible and McCarthyism). There was some good acting, particularly by Sister Aloysius, but I wasn't that convinced about the parallels.

Te Papa is the national museum of New Zealand and is right by Circa. Below, Dan is peering 'longingly' into the window of Cool Britannia looking for Walker's Crisps and nasty British marmite. As you may be able to tell from the t-shirt, this is actually a different day.