I would say the peak of Ilana feeling like crap was today. Debating whether to find some sort of urgent care clinic, load up on more drugs, or curse the one time Traveler’s insurance would have actually been worth it, we took it super easy today. A quick Uber down to the famous Te Papa Museum, where we saw the giant soldiers made by Weta Studios and were just told about on the previous day on our Weta tour. We aren’t huge Museum folk, but Te Papa is no ordinary museum, and it’s totally worth it. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s free. We then braved the outside for a solid minute or two, where we had to fight to stay upright against the intense Wellington winds. We were right on the water too, so it was particularly rocky. Luckily Ilana had brought the alpaca or sheep or whatever immensely warm ear-covering hat she acquired last year in the UK, so the winds were no match for her inner ear imbalance and congested brain. It was at this moment when we saw a churro salesman at the waterfront and deemed it the perfect time to get a Nutella-filled and dipped churro.
We made a few more pit stops and brief shopping to-dos, including stopping in at one of the gift shops in town run by the department of Kiwi lovers, or whatever the official New Zealand nature conservationists is. I wanted to buy a small kiwi stuffed animal as a gift for our ferret sitters, well really it would be a gift for their ferrets, and I thought they would appreciate a cute little stuffed kiwi. Turns out I shouldn’t have even joked about planning to give a stuffed kiwi to a real life ferret, as “ferrets are the worst thing to ever happen to New Zealand.” I had neither the time nor energy to go into my “the domestic ones are different” shpiel, but I understand what they mean. Apparently wild ferrets here are partial to kiwis and have been wiping them out. Oh the irony in giving a stuffed one as a gift to a domesticated ferret in the U.S. Needless to say, the conservationists were appalled.
We then headed back in for the night and to load up on the next round of various medicines. Warm soup delivery for dinner, one last hokey pokey ice cream for dessert, and a horror movie in bed with a space heater by our side to end our last full night of the honeymoon.