Wellington

Wellington

We left the geothermal city of Rotorua on an overnight bus. It was ridiculously crowded, very uncomfortable and we even broke down at one point - it felt just like SE Asia again!!! We were skipping some great North Island locations on our way to New Zealands capital but we knew we would be coming back to experience them all later on in our travels.

Darren and I arrived into Wellington early in the morning and after some serious hostel hunting, we finally found a spot, some way up a steep hill. After a small asthmatic fit, we went to check out town. Wellington is totally different to the urban sprawl of Auckland. It is the cultural heartland of the country, with a thriving cafe and entertainment scene and a great university town feel to it. It's far smaller than Auckland, set aginst a harbour and surrounding rugged mountain terrain. Wellington is set on the very southern tip of the North Island and provides the gateway to crossing over to the South Island. Because it is situated on the strait between the two halves of the country it can get very windy here - and as such has been termed 'Windy Nelly', although it was actually quite warm despit it's strong breeze. Darren and myself wanted to hit the South Island of New Zealand as quickly as possible so we only spent one day here. We would see this relaxed capital city again when we returned but for now we resided to spending our day walking the streets, along the harbour and up to the outer park for a bit of a scenic overview of the area. I did manage to persuade Darren to also head into the Te Papa museum - specifically because it currently had a huge section on volcanoes of New Zealand.

I have also just found out that my work studying volcanoes in Taupo is set up but the office is 8km out of town and no public transport runs to the small area of Wairakei. It looks like I now have to purchase a bike - a contraption which I have not used since I was about 8 years old - it should be fine though - they say it's as easy as, well, riding a bike!!!

The night life in Wellington seemed positively lively (to the suprise of Darren and I) and is centered on a long strip known as Courtney Place. We noted this down for our return. The following day we finally headed over to the South Island - which they say really is like stepping into Middle Earth - yes, my skills as an elf would finally be utilised..........