The City Of Broken Glass

Before today, I can't recall a sunny AND warm day in New Zealand, as it's been raining for about a week now, and even when it's not rainy it's colder and windier than you could ever imagine. Today was shockingly nice though, so we went down to the Oriental Parade beach. Little did I know this was an artificial beach that was created when they decided to dumb 22,000 metric tonnes of sand from Golden Bay into Wellington. It turns out that artificial beaches are actually a really terrible idea because the land was clearly not designed for a beach. Oriental Parade was cramped, dingy, and full of algae. Not exactly what I'd call paradise, but really you can't complain when the sun is actually shining in Wellington, so I embraced what little beach space we had and made the best of it. (I did not, however, touch the water because algae is so gross!) Honestly, the beach reminded me a bit more of a lake resort than anything else. Out about 20 yards were several platforms for playing on and a fountain, which seemed rather out of place on the ocean-front, but Wellington is certainly not known for it's choice in fountains (see below for more on this). I had the feeling I was back in Missouri, laying around Lake of the Ozarks, but the smell of salt and fish reminded me I was near an ocean.
On Cuba St, one of the main shopping and dining neighborhoods, there's perhaps the worst fountain I've ever seen in my life. It's basically a jungle gym of scoops in varying sizes, at the top there's 4 nozzles that fill up 4 scoops which dump into larger scoops below and those into larger and so on. The idea seems cool, but it was terribly designed, so the vast majority of the water is splashed into the sidewalk, making it very slippery. The amount of water that is wasted is mind-boggling considering how "green" this country is supposed to be. Not to mention the fact that the slippery sidewalk is quite dangerous. Just the other day I was nearly run over by a biker who slipped on the water.
Anyway, if I had to pick one defining feature of Wellington, I'd say it would be its expansive collection of broken glass strewn about the streets and the naked feet that trod upon it. New Zealanders have this strange aversion to footwear, which probably wouldn't be an issue in most other places, but the dirty streets and jagged glass pieces suggest that shoes are not optional. We even found glass in the sand at the beach today, and I'm surprised none of the children there were cut by any of it. I'm actually always surprised that no one has complained about the glass everywhere. I've never seen a news report about someone bleeding out on the stree because they stepped on glass and sliced their foot open, even though this scenario seems more than likely. More surprising though, is the stageringly large consumption of alcohol that causes the broken glass in the first place. I'm pretty sure I've said that alcohol is a cornerstone of the New Zealand culture, but it is just so true. Every single night there's a huge group of way-too-drunk people wandering around the streets. At first it was kind of funny, but now it's become a combination of tragic and annoying. Fortunately, my stay in Wellington is coming to an end and soon I'll be living in Hawkes Bay either working in an apple packhouse or picking apples in an orchard. If you're trying to picture me performing actual manual labor, please stop laughing so hard, it's not a joke.
Since I'm leaving New Zealand in a few months, I've been researching places to go and volunteer before I have to return home. Since the recent disaster in Haiti, I've been searching hard for volunteer oppertunities there, and I think I've found one that I can work with in April. I'm really looking forward to doing some hands-on disaster relief there, especially since I've been wanting to work in Haiti ever since I read Mountains Beyond Mountains in my 12th grade English class. All the details haven't quite been worked out yet, but after Haiti, I'll probably go to the Galapagos Islands for some more volunteer work, and then I'll be heading home sometime in mid to late May. Part of me is really looking forward to the comfort of my own bed in my own home, but I know I'm going to miss the traveling a lot.