Sunday 28th
After two short days at the Fraser Highland Retreat the time came too soon to bid farewell to Jim & Sue. They gave us some good advice for a better route to Picton that we were glad to have followed, the alternative having been an arduously windy road. Dropping off the car and checking in for the Interislander ferry were straightforward and, since we had once again been blessed with a fine, warm day, the 3.5 hour crossing via Queen Charlotte Sound and the Cook Straight was nice and calm, with much time spent out on deck enjoying the views and sunshine.
We arrived in Wellington, the capital of NZ, picked up our next hire car (a red Toyota Corolla this time) and found our way to our motel. It was extremely windy (to us) but the owner Mark described it as a breeze as they're used to it being much stronger, this being the windy city. A pleasant stroll to the waterfront via a nice bar in Cuba Street followed and we rounded off the evening with a romantic supermarket shop to replenish supplies! So another busy day over and still 2.5 weeks to explore North Island, maybe we'll find some Hobbits!
A cracking sunset
Monday 29 Feb
We spent the morning walking to find the cable car up to the botanic gardens and then spending a couple of hours there, a really lovely, large diverse garden. We ate some lunch sitting right next to the Beehive, as NZ's parliament building is known, and then meandered through several streets to spend about 3 hours at Te Papa, Wellington's exceptional six-story museum. The highlight was an exhibition called Gallipoli: the scale of our war, which was brought to life by many large-scale soldiers and other military personnel that had been created by Weta Workshop, the creative people behind Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. The detail was remarkable, down to beads of perspiration and stubble.
Having spent around 8 hours on our feet we took ourselves off to a great, lively Mexican restaurant not far from our motel, where I have to admit to having enjoyed the company of the Queen of the Night! Looking forward to the relatively short drive up the west coast to Wanganui tomorrow.
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