My last full day in Wellington.  Naturally, I returned to the usual tourist attractions that I didn't get a chance to tackle on Friday.  So, I set out with the hopes to visit Zealandia, the Cable Car and Botanic Gardens, the Beehive, and St. Mary of the Angels Church.  I did it all--not as extensively as I would have liked--but I did it all, nonetheless.  Maybe, if the entire city woke up before 9 or 10...I could have gotten more accomplished!

Anyways, the first thing I did was find a bus time to go to Zealandia.  In the hour before I had to pick up the bus, I wandered into the center of the city to find St. Mary of the Angels Church (left).  I didn't get to go in (it was Sunday and the signs were confusing), but the outside was beautiful.  Not getting to see the inside is probably my greatest regret in Wellington.  

The Aotearoa Animal Rights Conference was the reason I came to Wellington.  And, wow!  It was incredible.  The actual conference was Friday and Saturday.  I attended a debate on Friday night and the entire event on Saturday.  

To start off, I went to the Friday night debate.  The topic was, "Is Animal Rights a Waste of Time?"  Now, to put it in context, most of the attendees were vegan activists for animal rights.  So, the people on the affirmative didn't have much of a chance of changing opinions.  They did, however, get to play devil's advocate and make some great points.  Of course, at the end, the negative side won by a landslide of cheers.  But, I personally thought the affirmative side made the better argument.  For example, going vegan for animal rights is a waste of time because you fight against a huge industry and many people may not agree.  If you take a health perspective, though, you have a much better chance of possibly turning someone vegan.  Essentially, they appealed to the audience the best they could by saying animal rights was a waste of time but veganism was not (for either environmental or heath benefits).  It was relaxed and fun to watch.

I went on my first adventure outside of Dunedin!  And what an adventure it was!  I took the weekend off and went to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.  Actually, I took three days off: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Due to the massive amount of interesting and touristy things I did, I will be splitting my Wellington posts in to these three days.  So, lets start with Friday!

My flight was at 6:50 am, and I needed to be there early!  So, after a quick breakfast and a wonderful shuttle, I got on the plane and took off for the capital!  From now on, I only ever want to take early morning flights.  Both my arrival and departure flights were at 6:50 in the morning and both times I got to watch the sunrise from the air.  The sunrise created a perfect melted rainbow in the sky, the deep red slowly creeping over the wing and illuminating the clouds and land below us.  The white capped peaks of the Kaikoura Range stuck out of the foggy, blue-grey land like crunched up tin foil.