Hello,

We left river valley with apparently karma hot on our heels, and it was about to get worse. On the way to wellington we passed through a place called Bulls which was a little town that had incorporated the word bull into nearly every shop for example, the police station was called the CONSTA-BULLstation and an antique shop called COLLECTA-BULL, you get the idea. Anyway this little town had the best fish and chip shop ever and it was so cheap, we got fish and chips for $6 which converts to 3 pound in England and that was for 2 portions of fish and a mountain of chips with a huge tub of coleslaw and Tartar sauce! The fish was real meaty and made our English cod seem pathetic. As we were waitingfor our fish and chips, this is where the next shameful act of bad karma went down and again Hayley was dragged in to be an accomplice. There was loads of magazines on the table and because Lou has been deprived of reading OK and Heat she dragged Hayley into hiding it in her bag as they made for a quick exit, i was unaware of this until we got back on the bus...............shocking!! So now Hayley was convinced karma will rear its ugly face, for sure!! Haha

Anyway we had 3 nights in wellington and we were looking forward to having a semi permanent base to call home for a few nights and this was at the YHA which is always a good choice. We arrived in wellington quite late that night and headed straight for the supermarket which was only a stone's throw away and stocked up on food and alcohol because we hadn't had a drink since we had been in New Zealand really and in the YHA you are allowed to have a drink in the hostel so everybody had bottles of wine but we had 2 litres of cheap cider, we ended up meeting a group of Americans and we ended up playing drinking games with them and we had a good laugh. The following day we heading to the botanical gardens because it was fine weather and we headed up on the infamous red cable car and had great views over wellington. I had a little fall at the botanical gardens, I was walking along with my hands in my pocket and this dip in the pavement came from nowhere luckily there was a big hill mound and i fell face first into it because I couldn't be bothered to take my hands out my pocket. Stupid drain!!The botanical gardens were on par with some of the best we have seen throughout our travels.That day we headed back along the waterfront and we were beginning to love wellington and see its true potential. That evening me and Lou headed to Mount Victoria which is an dormant volcano that overlooks wellington and its harbour, we stayed there for sunset and had some amazing burritos with steak and again some cheap bottles of cider. We were ready for well deserved a big night out so we had some pre-drinks with our meal and played some cards. Apparently the night life doesn't get busy until 12 o clock in wellington and it's not worth going out until then so we stayed put and clocked up a few bottles of cider until 12 o clock had came upon us so we headed out in our best attire ready to sample the infamous wellington night life. The first bar on our list was basement bar and it was the place to be................ we approached, ID's to the ready, and giving the bouncer the nod, as you do................he broke the devastating news........ITS A SUNDAY................WE"RE CLOSED!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Not to be totally disheartened we gathered ourselves and asked where is best to party now?? Only to be kicked when were down, we were informed that everywhere is closed...................so much for the party doesn't start till 12 somebody should of stated EXCEPTSUNDAYS!!!!!!! So we did the walk of shame and ended the short night with some food back at the hostel; DISASTER!! You could say that was karma teaching us a lesson hopefully that will be the last of it but i very much doubt it.

Next day we hit the free museum, called Te papa it was massive and had good great interactive exhibits, how an earthquake feels, and we saw a giant colossal squid the only one on display in the world it had eyes the size of footballs. That night was our last night and Hayley and Lou cooked a lovely sausage casserole with mashed potato and vegetables, reminded me of my nana's cooking. We left wellington at a ridiculous hour in the morning to catch the ferry to take us to the south island. We were all excited for the south island because we had heard so many good things about it and how beautiful it was but It will be hard to beat the north island cause we have had so much fun. South island here we come.

Love Adam, Lou and Hayley xxx