The Parliament, Civic Center and Te Papa Museum in Wellington

On the day we visited the Botanic Gardens, we also went to a couple more places at Wellington. Yup, it was a busy day for us as we maximized on the weather's sunny disposition.

Our first stop is the Parliamentary Building, an impressive structure that features a neo-classical architecture. Right beside it is the Beehive, so named because of its shape. It is the executive wing of the parliamentary complex. As such the place is abuzz with news and views; a fitting name the Beehive is indeed.


After the botanic Gardens, we made our way to the Civic Center. The central library is located here. I've heard that the library houses an extensive collection of books and multimedia. I would like to see this for myself one of these days.
Finally, we made our way to the Te Papa Musesum which is right across the Civic Center. This is our second time to the Museum, actually. But the photos were accidentally deleted, so I was not able to post about our previous trip.

Entrance to the Te Papa is free. There are some areas where you need to pay, but the majority of the sections are open to the public. It's not just a place with dioramas, bones and artifacts. There's a lot of interactivity in the museum. Kids will definitely have a lot of fun there. In fact, we found it difficult to make Jo-Lo leave the museum.

Te Papa currently features Our Space, a multimedia section where visitors learn about New Zealand and its people in a visually engaging way. We visited The Map, where a satellite photo of New Zealand is on the floor. Stepping on particular sections will invoke video clips and photos about that place.
The Wall, on the other hand, is a digital graffiti wall of sorts. You can place photos, videos, words on it. Nearby are kiosks with video cameras where you can have your 2 minutes of fame, so to speak. Then this file is uploaded to the wall. Using remote control wands, you can move the images about, resize, write on the wall, even duplicate your images. Cool stuff.