Downtown Wellington is very compact, with a nice mid-level hum of activity, making it feel like a lively city. It seems to have better character than Auckland. I would have loved to live here for a while and explore the pubs and restaurants the area has to offer.

The waterfront between Te Papa and town was a nice area. There was a historic crane boat, a building with stock tickers on it, TSB Bank Arena, and again, lots of joggers.

Another view of Te Papa with some weird shiny sculpture things. The rain was letting up, so I decided to walk to the parliament buildings through downtown.

The main entrance of Te Papa. The museum is surprisingly large and modern. Any city in the world would be proud to be home to this museum, which is especially impressive considering the entire population of New Zealand is only 4.4 million, and the population of Wellington is only 200,000.

There was a small side exhibition about Te Papa's earthquake dampers, which I took a quick look at. Coming out, the rain seems to have subsided a bit, so I decided to continue on my walk towards the parliament buildings.

Te Papa, officially Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. I was surprised at how many joggers, and people in general, were out jogging in the rain. A woman cycled past me with a little girl on the back of her bike, loudly singing "rain, rain, go away" as they trailed off in the distance.

There were quite a few large hostels around the area. Seems like Wellington is pretty popular with backpackers. Throughout the day, I'm surprised at how amazed I feel looking at the modern conveniences I've been away from for the past month.

Wellington has some awesome-looking sewer covers.

It was shockingly cold in Wellington, coming from Fiji. It was raining, but I had a pleasant stroll while catching up with my parents on the phone. The rain got worse, so I decided I should stay indoors today, so decided to turn back, in the direction of Te Papa. Here is a view from Oriental Bay towards downtown Wellington.

For breakfast, I got a bunch of tasty-looking junk/comfort food from New World, including a samosa, a chicken "brunch cake", and a giant sausage - I just couldn't resist after being away from this food for so long! I strolled down Oriental Parade while munching on the goodies. Here is a view of Oriental Bay on Oriental Parade towards the east.