Parliament in Wellington

This afternoon saw us on a tour of Parliament. The guide was an excellent woman who gave us a great deal of information on the buildings, rooms, members of parliament and the process of governance. The “beehive” is the most recent building and houses the executive.

We saw the debating chamber, library, a committee room, banqueting room and also went down to the “basement”. Here we were able to view some of the changes which took place during the 1992-5 refurbishment to protect against earthquakes. We heard a few weeks ago that Wellington is likely suffer from a massive earthquake in the next one hundred years.

The scheme was devised by a Kiwi, Bill Robinson, and the technology has been exported to other countries including the USA. It is called “base isolation” and aims to reduce the transfer of earthquake forces from the earth around and below the foundation to the building above by inserting rubber bearings in four hundred and seventeen special cylinders at regular intervals which allow up to thirty centimetres of sideways movement.

Jean

And on a lighter note …

You know we love Botanic Gardens and I can’t resist posting photos of flowers! The hydrangeas were superb, with all colour varieties in close proximity.

Jean

Cook's canon

Wellington’s museum down by the harbour is the national museum of New Zealand with loads of state of the art displays, many of them interactive, spread over five floors. The canon (poor picture, left) caught my eye since it is an original from the Endeavour, the ship used by my fellow sailor and Yorkshireman Captain Cook on his epic voyages.

It has survived because at one stage in the 1770s Endeavour ran aground on a reef and to get her free Cook ordered six canons to be thrown overboard to lighten the load. This one survived 200 years in water, was recovered, restored and now holds an honoured place on the museum’s third floor. Dave