Today I went for a wander around Victoria University, otherwise known as Vic Uni. I got there via the cable car from Lambton Quay, the upscale shopping district in Wellington. We went through several tunnels that had lights flashing different colors on and off, it was pretty cool (the kids on the cable car agreed with me!) The view from the top of the cable car is classic Wellington, subject of many postcards.
I headed to the Adams Art Gallery which had an exhibit about mermaids. It was mesmerizing! There were photos & videos, a long piece by a woman from New Zealand who saw Splash when she was a kid and wanted to be just like Darryl Hannah’s Madison. There were videos of other professional mermaids in their habitats, including a spring that was excavated after WWII and has been putting on mermaid shows for decades, as well as different bars that have mermaid shows. Just fascinating.
Ate my lunch and relaxed in the sun near ‘The Hub’ (library/bookstore/cafes) and watched the quiet campus slowly move around me. It’s summer holidays so there were very few people around, seemed like it was mainly small groups of admin folks cleaning things up from the end of the previous semester. Vic Uni butts up against the Mount Street cemetery, which is quite old. There is a trail through it with lovely trees that provide shady, quiet places to sit. I passed a house where I am sure students live – there were two armchairs and an old couch on the porch-brought me right back to my UCSB days!
Found a lovely hidden grove that had a remarkable sculpture carved out of stone, it looked like a woman was curled up inside and had been partially excavated. The grove was right in between the School of Music and the theater performance space so I could hear both a concert session and a play rehearsal at the same time. It was a great spot to relax out of the sun-it was another humid day, something I am not used to yet.
When Annemarie was done with work we headed to the Wellington Botanic Gardens (AKA the Botty Gardens), which were lush and cool, and like most everything in Wellington on a hill! In addition to beautiful gardens, there are lots of twisty paths, sculptures and a duck pond that had no geese (yeah!) The wind started to pick up when we were there, which cooled us down and made the hike back up easier.
