busking bagpipers and other distractions

I love this place. Though I frequently see a piper busking at the outdoor markets, yesterday one greeted the 5pm rush front & center at the entrance to Wellington station. Since I had a little extra time I got out the ghillies and did a highland gigue (okay, in my head), but it does put a nice cap on your day to be serenaded past Platform 9 3/4 and even find a seat on the Paraparaumu express. So yes, I did work on Memorial Day, but we get Queen's Birthday off next Monday, so there. Between pipers, platform 9 3/4 and royal holidays, it's no secret New Zealand's under the Crown. Oh, you can add castles to that list...

Castle Point day-trip wraps up today's blog (scroll down)

Things are going swimmingly in the new home. Fun first week of PT temp work at the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (I coordinate the South Island program for 1st-year resident doctors). Super nice staff and it brings home the bacon while I have fun at Te Papa the rest of the time. Here's me and my new Te Papa staff badge!

Yes, I'm still on my Te Papa dream boat. After a bit of time on the job, I'm realizing that in fact I really like being a volunteer. It takes the pressure off when I want to attend meetings and activities that are not closely related to my project, but quite valuable to me personally and my New Zealand experience. Here's a smattering of my distractions at my personal "school of Te Papa":

• staff Waiata every Thursday afternoon on the Marae (meeting place) where a new Maori song and dance is taught every week
• Maori language classes -- one hour/week "term" class or just hour shots of a topic: pronunciation, using Te Reo in business correspondence, and others . . .
• public events like the upcoming Matariki festival (Maori new year) -- including staff only breakfast and performances at 6am on the 10th!
• back-of-house tours, library access (and of course, my own swipe key + badge)
• but most of all, getting to work with the National Services Te Paerangi staff -- they do an amazing amount for the museum community of NZ and iwi. Not only do they have forward-looking programmes like an alternative to accreditation and models for a bicultural workplace, but just a really collegial atmosphere where I feel accepted and valued for my contribution (iwi taonga database project, if you missed that post)

Getting to know the whole institution is very valuable to me, especially working with a big multicultural staff. I'm taking notes for the potential Peace Corps Country Director position (next January) when I would manage a staff of country nationals as well as a few Americans. Te Papa does a lot right. And if the next thing is back in Alaska museums, I've got a ton of ideas to share! 

So, besides distractions at work, I have been out playing lately too. Liew, my Malaysian friend you'll remember from South Island journeys, stopped by last week to say goodbye before heading home (she travelled NZ for 3 months). We took a day trip out to Castle Point in the Waiararapa. Zigzagged across the Rimutaka Range on Route 2 northeast of Wellington and drove through the Wairarapa -- sheep and wine country. 

look closely (click) -- it's all sheep!

On our way out we sampled and drooled over Schoc Chocolate's spicey wonders (I came home with a bar of lime-chili chocolate) and on the way back, made a stop at the Martinborough wine centre, home of New Zealand's finest pinot noirs (got the necessary bottle to go with the chocolate). 

Castlepoint is a long fossil-encrusted limestone reef with 162m high castle rock at one end and a lighthouse at the other. Liew and I braved the cliffs and were almost punished on our alternate route back with a push off the edge from the gusts. 

Having survived the day, we celebrated our existence and had a farewell dinner at a funky lounge in Carterton on the way home and Liew took off the next day. She's been a fun travel bud and I love it that I've carried a few friends with me to different places (Liew, Alex, Cat, Leeann). Speaking of those harbour-dwellers, Cat picked us up for a jaunt to the market saturday + a new one with heaps of samples! She brought a british lady who'd washed up in Mana Harbour, sailing around the world for eight years (including 3 stops in Sitka). She was just waiting for a good northerly to take her to Hawaii. Good company on a Saturday morning! Well, we've come full british circle now, so I'll quit.