Day 40: Domain Wintergardens, WWI Museum, Monologue

Today started late at 10:30, and the intention was to stark knocking thesis out at 7:00. With a shower and laptop started, progress rapidly reduced to sending an email, and I fell asleep until 10:15... The 3 hour time difference and airport living had taken a larger tole than I anticipated. Rested, we left for the Domain Wintergardens and World War I Museum. The garden reminded me of one I had visited before when I was younger (forgetting at the moment, this will bug me until I figure it out), with large glass atrium filled with blooming life. I soaked in the macro photography environment, and continued onto the fernery, where ferns, palms, and native orchids lay under a massive pergola. It was at least 5 degrees cooler, and I fell in love with the bright sun shining through the fern leaves. I've found over the years that these upward shots with contrast are among my favorite, as the symmetry of the leaves are so drastic and exact. With photographs complete, we continued onto the World War I Museum, which lay 15 minutes away.

This museum was amazing, as it was much more than a WWI showcase. The massive marble monument was a tribute to New Zealand soldiers from all eras of war, and housed much more than war history. The massive building housed natural history, native culture, ancient world artifacts, modern art, colonial furniture, jewelery, New Zealand's world context throughout the country's history, and really anything that could paint a complete picture of New Zealand. It was honestly one of the most well-rounded and complete museum's I've ever visited, and I feel I could have learned most things about New Zealand's rich culture with a full day. After an hour or so, we watched a Maori culture skit, where natives performed several dances, the last of which was the well-known Haka dance. The Blacks, the most famous rugby team, uses the techniques and symbols derived from Haka, and the intense slapping, shouting, and intimidation used to chant were seriously mesmerizing and amazing. With this cultural insight, we left and returned to our residence until we set out again at 7:45 for a monologue.

The monologue was held at The Basement, a beautiful theatre located downtown in an industrial-looking building. The performance, "We May Have To Choose," was unlike anything else I had ever viewed. The woman told her opinion, facts, and sometimes contradicting opinions in short spurts. Sometimes in a one-way conversation, sometimes in short broken sentences. This continued for roughly 45 minutes, and ended. Personally, I loved it. The form and manner in which she passionately spoke captured so many different aspects on life when given some deep reflection. She captured that every individual has their own view of the world, and that it's so easy to disregard others and simply accept yours as the correct or only way. Moments seemed to help communicate thoughts from multiple perspectives: depressed, happy, optimistic, pessimistic, religious, atheist, poor, rich, violated, persecuted. This was done with the ways in which she proclaimed simple phrases, then would say the opposing thing with a different attitude or with different context with other phrases. These phrases seemed to have one no connection, as she might say "I think orange is a beautiful color," then "love and hate are really the same thing," then 10 minutes later say the opposite thing with different situations or another scenario in which the perspective is viewed. Maybe I'm thinking too deeply into it, but I loved getting out of my comfort zone (which this trip has done an amazing job of) and truly trying to experience the world through the perspective of a passionate woman who loved performing.