Just "walkin' in the rain"...Definitely not "Singin'"

 Hi there

I belong to 'Friends of Te Papa'. Te Papa Tongarewa is the Museum of New Zealand, situated in Wellington.  Yes, Wellington.  Surprise, surprise, it's one iconic landmark that didn't get snapped up by Auckland....Hooray. 

Anyway, I'd booked to go on a Te Papa Friends archeological walk around Wellington a couple of weeks ago but because of projected bad weather it got postponed until yesterday (Sunday) when the weather was really-really bad.  

It rained the whole time I was on the walk and only about ten of us showed up, the other registered walkers had deferred until next weekend.

We walked along the wharf-front looking at the huge over-a-hundred-year-old Hikitia sea crane that is the oldest working one in the world.  It cant get out to sea by itself; it's lost that capability, however this old girl can get towed to deep water to pick up would-be archaeological treasures.   

I must have passed this crane hundreds of times and never thought much about it.  Who would have guessed that down in the crane's belly was a whole area devoted to the conservation work of maritime archaeological discoveries dredged up from the sea floor. But owing to the fact that the deck hatches are rather small, big artifacts like anchors can't be fed through them because those small hatches are the only entrance to the room underneath.  So... found anchors are dumped in a cluster nearby - word of advice from me: don't swim, dive, or drunken-fall to the right side of the crane.

We walked down Willis Street, learning about the archeological stuff that had been found after the remains of "Plimmer's Ark" had been excavated at the bank arcade site, at the corner of Willis Street and Lambton Quay.  If you visit here during shop hours, there are artefacts on the basement floor.  The ship had been salvaged way back in the 1800s, and turned into a shop by Mr Plimmer, The huge 18-something-or-other Wellington earthquake had raised the land, putting paid to the shop's business.

Then, our little group tootled over to Queen's wharf and found out about how that wharf came about.  We looked at maps depicting how the area had been before and after the earthquake.

It was interesting to learn that during the earthquake every piece of crockery and glassware in every pioneer house had been smashed.  Enterprising crockery-sellers from, for instance, the Taranaki area, rushed down to Wellington to sell their wares.  Because there was so many household breakages after the quake, the city council asked everybody to put stuff outside their houses for collection by wheel-barrows.  It was to be used as ground filler.  And such great finds for future archaeologists.

above: outside Te Papa.  Circa Theatre is behind me.  You can't see it but the crane is to the right of Circa Theatre

above: walking along the wharf.  In the rain. Docked Bluebridge inter-island ferry at back.

We ended up at Government Buildings, my old stomping work ground, where I was surprised to discover there was a curb at the south side of the structure on which a true chain length could be measured...