Wellington: The compact capital!

Leaving Taupo we got the coach south to Wellington but first passing the Tongariro National Park with its three snow capped volcanic peaks, one of which is Mount Ngauruhoe (or Mount Doom, for Lord of the Rings fans!) and another Mt Ruapehu which last erupted in 1996 and sometimes still emits ash clouds. We were in awe of the whole thing, especially at one particular point where we could see Mount Doom, Mount Tangariro and Mount Ruapehu in the background.

Arriving in Wellington it definitely didn't have the feel of a capital city, more like a large town. We had to walk the length of Lambton Harbour to get to our hostel and this only took about fifteen minutes. The harbour side had been laid out well with some gardens, large open squares and sculptures.

We went for a wander around the centre checking out some of the main areas to visit then headed for the Te Papa National Museum which was by far the best museum we had seen so far. We stayed there a couple of hours but was so big we couldn't possibly see everything. Some of the museum highlights were experiencing an earthquake and the display of a captured colossal squid which stored in preservatives to keep its body from decaying.

Next day we took a local bus to Weta Caves, the production house of many huge films including the Lord of the Rings, King Kong and Avatar. There was a mini museum with some of the props from the films and life size recreations of Smeagoul and some Orks etc plus a video with a behind the scene look at how they make the films. The museum guide told us that right now they are making Avatar 2 and in the future there will be a third, he said the director made 12 billion out of the first one and now he's hoping to double that greedy ay!

Later we climbed Mount Victoria for some great views over the city and the Pacific Ocean and relaxed on the way back down on Wellington beach front.
In the evening it was quite cold and windy so we decided to go to cinema and watched Paranormal Activity 2 as we been wanting to for ages but couldn't find the time. We couldn't believe this is where they held LOTR premiers, it was tiny cinema in a small street.

We made our ten hour bus journey back to Auckland which wasn't too boring thanks to amazing views of mountains, greenery, lakes and oceans.

Our New Zealand trip flew by too quick and was over before we knew it but it has been an awesome adventure, picture postcard scenery and adrenaline pumping madness! We absolutely loved it!