Blame it on the rain

Oh balls....rain.

Well, I woke up to the sound of rain outside my window this morning. Generally, I really enjoy it. However, it kind of kills the sightseeing motivation at that point. However, I have an umbrella (a new one I got in Queenstown that replaced the old, tattered one from Christchurch), so I headed out to the internet cafe, then to the gym, then wandered around the streets a bit to see what the wet kids were up to.



I guess that even the Scots don't mind a wee bit o' rain, when the bagpipe rhythm gets'em. I heard the familiar bleeting sound when I was at the internet cafe and, when I finished, I came out to find this man, under a huge umbrella, just squeezing to his hearts content. The bagpipe is not a soothing instrument, by any means. But, I give him credit for dragging his pipes out in this weather to entertain everyone.

After going to the gym and wandering around a few stores, I decided to head back into the Wellington Museum of Air and Sea. I was told that I had missed one of the best presentations during my last visit a couple of days ago.



They were actually right.

There is a holographic presentation about how the harbour came into being, as told my a Kiwi woman in a nice white dress. It was actually really cool to watch...not the kind of technology you'd expect in a small museum like this. She just walks out onto this small stage, clear and three dimensional as can be, and starts talking to the audience.You'll have to forgive my unclear pictures of her. She moves and talks throughout the presentation and, since she's a tiny hologram...you can't really ask her to sit still for one cotton-pickin' moment while you snap a quick shot.





She tells this whole story about how the sea or river (I was too busy trying to get a good picture to get the whole story) decided to make its way through the land or something. Blah, Blah, blah....could the transparent woman JUST sit still for one second?

Is that too much to ask?!

There were lots of colorful holographic visuals going on in the little porthole to her right....kind of like the Guardian of Forever from "Star Trek", but without Joan Collins. There is a whole story about a mythical sea phenomenon or creature that ended up making the harbor or flowing into the harbor...or harbored a grudge....who knows? I just liked the pretty visuals.





Then she told another story about how some native boy tricked his magic granny into giving him fire, which she would do by removing one of her fingernails. And, as all kids do...he just kept putting the fire out in a stream so that he could see what would happen if he got her down to her last fingernail/flame.



Well, she got pissed (and not "drunk", which is what it means here in New Zealand) and set the whole area on fire...he turned into a bird or something and flew into the trees...and that's why the natives rub sticks together to make fire.

Or something like that...

I'd already sat through the thing three times in a feeble attempt to get just ONE good shot of the lady in white, but no....it wasn't going to happen.

Honestly, if she had just ONCE, during any of my three viewings, bent down and said "Help us, Obi Wan, you're our only hope!". I would have been happy.

But no....she just walked past the wee furniture, blew out her candle and disappeared behind a lamp.

I'm getting tired of women just disappearing before I can get a good photo of them....