I'd heard that some touring the Beehive, the New Zealand Parliament building, the political center of NZ, had been fortunate enough to see the prime minister of NZ, John Key, at the end of their tour. This I'd also hoped to do. I had heard that he was very approachable and could sometimes be seen around town during the lunch hour. Some have even taken selfies with him. I read that if I wanted to increase my chances of seeing him I'd want to take the 3:00 PM tour as that is when he passed the tour group en route to the press room to answer questions from the press once a week. I mentioned this to the person setting up the tours. She said to mention this to the person giving the tours. This got my hopes up as they were actually acting as though this was possible.
My tour wasn't for another hour or two so I walked across the street and toured the Supreme Court. I couldn't believe how accessible this building was. The lady that showed me the court room let me take pics while she talked about the judicial system and said that the building is open for people to enter if if she wasn't attending the front desk. She mentioned that they pride themselves at their transparency and openness and want to make people feel as though they can walk in to the building at any time. I also visited the Bank Reserve before heading back to the parliament building to start my tour.
The tour was great, but the PM never walked past us to go to his afternoon meeting with the press. We saw another well-known NZ politician, Andrew Little, but not the PM. The person setting up the tour relayed my interest in seeing John Key to the tour guide. After the tour she approached me and said, "You're the one that wanted to see the PM?" "Yes. Is it possible?" "Follow me," she said. I followed her, my mind not fully coming to terms with being able to walk up to the head of a country so easily and realizing I may be moments away from doing just that. She took me to a room where he meets with the press... which was empty. It was Easter holiday this past weekend, which is a bigger deal here, so people often take off quite a bit of time around it. That may be why they didn’t meet. She said he was in the building, but apparently not meeting with press today. Shoot. That was close.
Tomorrow I head north. I've enjoyed Wellington! It was the new friends, having lots to see and do, and the political feel of the city, especially with its transparency and openness, that made it so enjoyable.
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