Watch out! "Asian" is driving....

People who look Asian (FYI British call them (us) "oriental", because to them Asians would be Indians and Pakistanis I was told) have this reputation in New Zealand for being notoriously bad drivers. Now, I'm sure many Koreans would disagree with that, but this "reputation" would still be there, so, it really doesn't matter what the "Asians" in question think about it. Anyways, I think now I know why Kiwis think that way.
Yesterday Katy and I took Katy's brother car and drove around running some chores and just sightseeing. Because Katy hasn't driven for a while and was a bit nervous getting behind the wheel I offered to drive. Now, during my last visit 2 years ago I did drive a little bit here in New Zealand out in the mountains near Hooka falls (see picture in the previous post), so I wasn't nervous or anything like that at all. And we got to our destination safe and sound only with a few hickups on the way. The reason would be... yes.. damn right hand drive. So, yes, I did have windshield wipers accidentally just going nuts in front of me on a good sunny day when I just meant to turn on blinkers, and I did drove a couple of times on the wrong side of the road, thank God there were no cars, and yeah... I did have Katy say in a high-pitched tone a couple of times, "you're too close to the side..." Anyways, that was only for an hour or two, I think normally one would get used to driving on the other side within 3 days tops. And I think I did already...

Wellington, a city of about 300,000 people reminds me somewhat of Seoul, not because of the buildings or anything, but because it looks kind of chaotic (like Seoul) and it is very hilly. Half the city seem to sit on the side of the mountains with great views. Even some parking spots have a view to kill for. On our first day we went to the 10th anniversary of the Te Papa museum to see some free performances; we saw Shaolin monks martial art performance, Indian drum called tabala if I remember correctly, some transgender Indonesian dance performance with comic elements. It was interesting to watch not because it was particularly a lot of fun, but just because I haven't been into all this cultural stuff for so many years while living in Seoul, that it felt kind of refreshing to do it and pretend that I can appreciate it.
It's very surprising for me to see that the sea water in Wellington is so clean even within the city that we actually saw a sting ray coming very close to the shore in the city, so that we could see him lying on the bottom just 50cm away from us. Nature+City?.. Not kind of concept I got used to living in Seoul.