{"id":1352,"date":"2011-11-21T09:55:22","date_gmt":"2011-11-21T08:55:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruckh.org\/travel\/?p=1352"},"modified":"2012-10-24T19:49:28","modified_gmt":"2012-10-24T17:49:28","slug":"cambridge-reunion-in-wellington","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruckh.org\/travel\/2011\/11\/cambridge-reunion-in-wellington\/","title":{"rendered":"Cambridge reunion in Wellington"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Naomi and Mark, good friends of mine from Cambridge, got married just one week before us, and have since moved to Wellington. So from the day we planned to travel in New Zealand, we were excited to visit them for a few days in the city they (at least for now) call home – New Zealand’s capital. It was great to spend time with them, see where they now live, hear about the trials and tribulations of relocating to a country that seems so similar to England but yet is quite different.<\/p>\n

We spent a great day together at Zealandia<\/a>, a wildlife sanctuary just outside Wellington. This long-term project aims to recreate a landscape that only \"\"<\/a>has native plants and animals of New Zealand in it. A predator-proof fence is supposed to keep all the introduced mammals out that kill(ed) the native fauna. For this reason, you are also requested to check your bags before entering, so you don’t accidentally bring any rats in. Quite amusing intermezzo, as there is a diligent lady watching over you while you do the ’self-check‘ for rats or other small mammals. Thank god I took the parabiotic mice out of my purse before we went there.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Mark, being of Maori descent, gave us a lot of insights into Maori culture and how it still is alive in todays society. It was quite stunning for us to hear that many Maori people live a seemingly assimilated Western life, but yet at certain occasions, they will hold meetings in carved wooden meeting halls, observing complicated and longwinding rituals just like their ancestors did. He even told us that some colleagues at work that are also of Maori heritage would greet him with the traditional way. In Cambridge we somehow never got to talk about his Maori heritage, he was ‚just a Kiwi‘ for me. It somehow took to visit him in his home country to find out all these really interesting stories.
\nWe also went to Te Papa Museum (the NZ National Museum), learning more about Maori culture, but also lots about earthquakes, tectonic plates and the history of Gondwana – the ancient supercontinent before the plates split up to form todays Australia, NZ, Africa and South America – one of the coolest and best designed museums we have been to on this trip. It was also great fun to visit the Weta<\/a> Cave with Naomi, see some of the original ‚Lord of the Rings‘ characters and find out what Peter Jackson does if he doesn’t direct Lord of the Rings. And Mark, being a former chef, spoiled us with great dinners every night.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

I find it a strange and sometimes even sad feeling that – as a result of us constantly moving around, and many of our friends doing the same – the people we care for are scattered all around the globe and we don’t get to see them very often. But it’s a reassuring experience that if you visit good friends, you can just pick things up from where you left them. Thanks Naomi and Mark for the wonderful days in Wellington, and hope to see you soon again – somewhere, sometime.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Flattr<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Naomi and Mark, good friends of mine from Cambridge, got married just one week before us, and have since moved to Wellington. So from the day we planned to travel in New Zealand, we were excited to visit them for a few days in the city they (at least for now) call home – New … Weiterlesen »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94,64,62,3,10],"tags":[245,247,246,241,244,243],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruckh.org\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruckh.org\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruckh.org\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruckh.org\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruckh.org\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/ruckh.org\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3989,"href":"http:\/\/ruckh.org\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1352\/revisions\/3989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruckh.org\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruckh.org\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruckh.org\/travel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}