Many historical markers were passed friends and I traversed the country of New Zealand and I must say I took pictures more than I should have. I am all for learning and feel I have always been weirdly drawn to exploring the history of each new place I visit. However, I was not expecting to experience such a dense number of historical markers around the city of Wellington. I had figured the city would rich with New Zealand culture as it is the capital of the country, but I believe my surprise to be due to a lack of historical knowledge of the country especially with its involvement in WWII. I can say that it all makes sense that New Zealand would have provided the Allies some support in the war with their past as a British colony. This being said, I was not aware that New Zealand had become a useful post for America to store supplies and soldiers before they departed and headed into battle through the Pacific. This fact was introduced to me by an inconspicuous bronze plaque laden in a wall on a shore line walkway of Wellington. As seen below, the marker reads “The United States Marine Corps arrived at this Quay in May 1942 and left from here to serve in the Pacific theatre of war.”
In an article titled The Town Was Full of Them”, Peter Wells provides background to the plaque’s place and meaning in Wellington. Wells states that in 1942, tens of thousands of 2nd Division U.S.M.C arrived by ship in Wellington carrying loads of supplies with them. He also adds that this shipment arrived without any formal communication that they were coming to the capital of the country. Yet, there is a plaque to honor them? Yes, because for the most part New Zealand was welcoming of the U.S. help as their shared in the same goal to defeat the evil that was plaguing Europe. Furthermore, Wells reports that American soldiers loved the country as they were seemingly welcomed with open arms all over Wellington which was probably due to how strong their American dollars were. The plaque commemorating this occurrence definitely stopped me in my tracks along our walk down the waterfront that day, and I was weirdly thrilled to learn about the USMC ties to Wellington and the country as a whole. With so many US soldiers stationed in the country I can only imagine what percentage of them stayed after the war and how many brought a significant other home to the U.S. Honestly, I could not tell if it made me feel more or less like a tourist, but either way it was a fascinating discovery.
http://www.if-9.de/cmc/cmc_22.htm- City, My City-The Town Was Full of Them by Peter Wells
Foreign Adventures-New Zealand 