We continued on to the museum where we planned to visit the Gallipoli exhibit that had come highly recommended by many different people. There was a line to get in to the exhibit and we waited for maybe 20 to 25 minutes. Many of the museums in town were free to visit. I think the only part of the museum that required an entrance fee was a Bug Exhibit and Megan had said it wasn't worth the fee.
It was an amazing exhibit designed by Peter Jackson the creator of the Lord of the Rings movies (which were filmed partially in Wellington as well as surrounding areas). The soldiers in the above photos were huge, perhaps ten feet tall, and complete in every detail, down to hairs on the back of their hands. It was a sobering, impressive exhibit, and we learned a lot about the ANZAC and Gallipoli war. We wandered through the Maori exhibit as well and then hurried back to our hotel to pick up my backpack with water, snacks, and camera for the afternoon ferry trip to Eastbourne. We purchased tickets for the ferry through East to West Bay Excursions and then stopped for a quick lunch at Mexi-Can a short distance away. It was passable Mexican food, but close by and convenient.
Our ferry left at 2:15 pm. I got on first while waiting for Chris and quickly made my way up top to claim a spot.
We stopped first at Somes, but no one got on or off so we continued on to Eastbourne, across the bay from Wellington. Unless you were coming to hang out at the beach all day, there wasn't a lot notable about Eastbourne. We walked to their small downtown, but were underwhelmed.
Chris had this wild hair that we should hike. I was not thrilled. Somehow he wasn't factoring in that we would have to walk up the side of a small mountain for this hike. He pointed out that we were going to do the "EASIEST" hike. I pointed out in my mind, and probably out loud, that EASIEST didn't actually mean that it was an EASY hike. And it wasn't. I just wanted to get up the side of the mountain as quickly as possible and set off at a rather brisk pace. Chris did his best to keep up with me, and my assessment was correct: we pretty much had to go up and up and up. In fact, my Fitbit recorded that I had done 99 flights of stairs! I felt like a sweaty mess.
We shared comments on Facebook concerning the hike, and as we lay in bed later that evening, Chris said, "I just love that we can argue on Facebook." Dude!
The brochure said that the hike took an hour and 15 minutes to complete; we were done in 45 minutes. I just wanted to be done and I didn't want to miss the last ferry of the day. There was nothing in Eastbourne if we were unfortunate enough to miss the ferry!
As we walked along the beach, I picked a few shells from the beach for our shell jar. We walked up on the pier to wait for the ferry and alternately watched and took pictures of all the people jumping into the water.
When some of the guys saw that I was taking pictures, they were happy to perform for the camera. They were most intent on creating the biggest splash.
The ferry arrived a little late. Chris and I found a spot on the upper level near the front. We were unfortunate enough to have a bunch of punk American 20-somethings stand next to us. They were jerks. Finally after one guy pulled out a beer, drank it, and then started burping loudly next to Chris, Chris had had enough. The guy drinking the beer apologized for the burping, but one of his mates got riled up. I might have said something not so nice to him and he started spouting off in order to look cool in front of his friends. We were glad when the ferry ride ended.
We returned to the hotel and sank gratefully onto the bed. Pooped. That's what we were.
Our restaurant for the evening was called Burger Liquor. I had a fish burger and a salad while Chris had a hamburger, milkshake, and fries. The ketchup for the fries was a house-made brand that really just tasted like tomatoes to me. Not my favorite. The fish burger was tasty and the salad was really good.
As we returned to the hotel, we stopped at a grocery store for a few snacks to take with us on our travels on Sunday. It had been a busy, hot day and we were happy to finally fall in to bed.