Day 23 - Sat 3 Nov

After breakfast we were faced with the challenge of repacking our bags. After nearly three weeks living in the van, we had moved in, and as we accumulated gifts, books, brochures and souvenirs, they had been stowed in corners and hidey holes around of the van. All those little pieces sure add up when you try to cram them back into your original suitcase. And of course the ten bottles of wine were a challenge in themselves. We eventually managed, with just one additional piece of hand luggage which wasn't too bad.

Parliament buildings

Tom and Anne gave us a lift to town since it was raining again, and we went to do the tour of the parliament building. The New Zealand system of government is based on the British Westminster system, the same as Australia, but with one interesting wrinkle in that they abolished their Upper House (the Senate in our case) some years ago. So they have only an equivalent to our House of Representatives, which they call ... the House of Representatives. This makes select committees working on specific issues, along with the passing of all bills through a public review and comment process, very important components of the political system in that they provide the check and balance to prevent the House of Representatives from going feral.

Speaking of feral, the lady running the tour had been refused a job at Te Papa, and boy wasn't she bitter about it! She did know her stuff, though, and lead an interesting tour around the building. It's a nice building, very impressive, and in what seemed excellent condition until we found that considerable parts were new having been extensively damaged by a fire in 1992. The first thing she showed us was the earthquake isolation (see yesterday). We then toured through various other areas, including Maui Tikitiki a Taranga (the Maori Affairs Select Committee Room), and the Galleria area which was added as part of the strengthening project and contains the largest commissioned artwork in New Zealand. After touring the Library and the hallway commonly seen on television as TV crews chase the politicians, we went into the actual debating chamber - the actual House of Representatives. This has many similarities to the Australian chamber, and apparently the British House of Commons (which cannot be visited) but with small Kiwi tweaks. For example, where a blanket is placed on the speaker's chair in the House of Commons, the New Zealand Parliament substitutes a sheepskin. The other funny thing is that the Green party leader in the house has lined his seat with six possum skins.

Possum Pizza Hello Possums!
We've been hearing the whole trip about possums. They're the next hottest topic after rugby and netball -- guaranteed to be mentioned by all tour guides. Another chance to take a jab at Aussies, I suppose. Apparently the introduced possums are the scourge of all New Zealand, being responsible for all disease, natural disasters and the global recession. In fact, possums bowled the underarm delivery! Just kidding, but they do apparently chew through something like 20,000 tonnes of vegetation every night, causing not only damage to native trees and bushes, but also decimating the habitats and food sources of native birds and animals. The possum was introduced from Australia, and there are now an estimated 70 million of them chewing voraciously away. Of course, New Zealand's drivers do their best to reduce numbers, with possums clearly leading the roadkill tally. In fact, at Te Papa they have a display showing a road-kill possum that became effectively fossilised in the road surface. Perhaps the Kiwis should consider The Possum Cookbook.

Butt ugly!!

After the tour we walked around the grounds a little. There are three main buildings in this location: Parliament House, the Parliamentary Library, and the Executive Wing. The Executive Wing contains the minister's offices and other administrative functions. It's usually referred to as the Beehive, and in our opinion, it's one of the ugliest public buildings ever built! Across the road is the Government Building, which is the second largest entirely wooden building in the world. We had a quick look around this too, before heading back to the B&B.

From there we picked up our bags and continued to the airport. Paid our departure tax of NZ$ 25 each, then off we flew.

E noho ra Aotearoa.