Feb 2 - Exploring Wellington

We started the morning with a quick tour around Wellington. A huge issue here is making earthquake resistant. Some older buildings that do not meet current standards are sitting empty awaiting engineering decisions - retrofit or raze and rebuild.

Wellington is the capital of New Zealand, so we stopped to look at the Parliament Buildings that had absolutely no security in sight. There are three main buildings - the Beehive that houses offices - voted the third ugliest building in the world; the actual Parliament Building; and the Parliamentary Library.

Our next stop was the Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa Tongarewa, usually referred to simply as Te Papa. GPT had arranged for us to access the premier exhibit before the general public so we could study it in relative calm. The exhibit was about the Battle of Gallipoli, a campaign of the First World War that took place on the Gallipoli peninsula (Gelibolu in modern Turkey), from 17 February 1915 to 9 January 1916. The Entente powers, Britain, France and the Russian Empire, sought to weaken the Ottoman Empire, one of the Central Powers, by taking control of the straits that provided a supply route to Russia. The Allies' attack on Ottoman forts at the entrance of the Dardanelles in February 1915 failed and was followed by an amphibious landing on the Gallipoli peninsula in April 1915 to capture the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (Istanbul).

In January 1916, after eight months' fighting, with approximately 250,000 casualties on each side, the land campaign was abandoned and the invasion force withdrawn. It was a costly defeat for the Allies and for the sponsors, especially First Lord of the Admiralty (1911–1915), Winston Churchill.

The campaign is often considered to be the beginning of Australian and New Zealand national consciousness; 25 April, the anniversary of the landings, is known as ANZAC Day, the most significant commemoration of military casualties and veterans in the two countries, surpassing Remembrance Day (Armistice Day)

The exhibit was, without a doubt, the best museum exhibit I have ever seen. There were models of actual people - the models were 2.5 times life size and were made by the studios here in New Zealand that did the work for the Lord of the Rings. The attention to detail was uncanny - right down to the beads of sweat on the foreheads of the soldiers.

The animations of the surges and the retreats of the forces were extremely well-done, showing the struggle by the ANZAC forces to stay perched on the side of steep cliffs in vile conditions. it was truly a poignant reminder of both man's courage and man's stupidity.Read more