It sucks to be poor!

Now that several days have passed our willingness toward free spending has turned to reality. As a result our bellies are feeling empty and we are getting edgy. Just like any drug withdrawal.

At some point yesterday, we performed an internet search for restaurants using the "one dollar sign" (ie, poor people option) (less then $15 per plate). Really, we need the less-than-poor option so we went on the hunt for restaurants with starters that seemed reasonably filling. Am I wrong or are we being cheap? We broke down today at lunch...G had a melt down so I got her a $14 soup and for me $18 chili con carne. They were tasty...or were we so hungry that newspaper would have been flavorful? Don't we (US) have the dollar advantage?

before the melt down

getting desperate

Also,  free WiFi is available throughout Wellington's Central Business District, but it has poor reception and speed. I just gave in and purchased $30 for 24 hours. This will allow us access from the room (no more going down to the lobby for free WiFi).

On a much happier note, last night (Saturday) we met up with a friend of Gayle's Columbines friend Gabrielle--Nicole Pray--and her boyfriend Von and his 2 children. Children are children, despite different cultures...easily bored and in need of attention. Nicole and Von were wonderful. They were great conversationalists, discussed many New Zealand topics such as politics--theirs and ours--history, future, and much more. Von treated us to a driving tour of Wellington, including Mount Victoria, which has a fantastic view of the city (most of which is on land reclaimed from the sea). The weather wasn't good (overcast and windy) so we didn't take pictures. We should have.

I tried to get in on the driver's side a couple of times (it is the passenger side for us.)

Today, another lousy weather day, we walked through the Te Papa Museum, the major history and nature museum in New Zealand. Von described it as NZ's Smithsonian. Gayle didn't see it. The volcanoes and earthquake exhibits (there are a lot in New Zealand) were interesting. We hope we don't experience an earthquake or an eruption during our stay! The earth stuff (crust, mantle, cores and tectonic plates) were good. However, I did sleep through the 20-minute people of New Zealand film. It was dark and my legs were feeling heavy after walking around the museum. Also, about 75% of the potentially interesting interactive exhibits didn't work. Thanks, kids.

We are back at the hotel now. Now that I have internet and some groceries (only a tea kettle and a mini-fridge in this hotel room) to get us through breakfast and lunch for the coming week, I think we are going to indulge in streaming TV shows from home. There are only 6-9 channels here and they are not particularly entertaining (the game of cricket is seriously boring and the NZ vs England rugby game is dominating the airwaves).

Cultural note. In New Zealand, you enter a restaurant and order/pay, then you sit. We enter and get seated, and then order. No tipping!

Also, movie ticket prices aren't posted and you buy them from the candy counter...why is that? Maybe because tickets cost $17.50 per person. We'll wait for Netflix when we get back to the US (Netflix doesn't stream outside the US...doh!).

World premiere location for the Hobbit. The premiere was huge news all over NZ.