Saturday 15thJanuaryNational Park - Wellington

Our accommodation at the Park Lodge was wonderful - we had our own little room with 2 single beds, full en suite facilities, fridge, washing facilities and a mezzanine floor with another 2 beds.The Park also has a coffee bar!!!!!After his shower, Ant went and fetched us a cappuccino and got Sophie a hot chocolate (she shared with us last night as there were odd numbers of males and females and she would have been sharing with a much older man on her own!!).

After breakfast, we set of for the drive to Wellington.On route, we stopped to take photographs of a large plastic carrot (!!!) and at a place called "Bulls" where the locals try to get the word bull into as many phrases as they can.

We arrived in Wellington in the early afternoon and checked into our back packer's accommodation.Wellington is New Zealand's capital although its population is smaller than Auckland in the north (400,000 compared to 1.4 million in Auckland).

Ant and I managed to get an upgrade to our own room with bathroom again tonight!!Our early arrival at Wellington gave us time to look around the town and visit the museum before meeting the others for drinks.We are all still sore from the Tongariro crossing yesterday, so not wanting to walk too far, Ant and I checked out just 1 floor of the 6 floor Te Papa Museum where we learnt about earthquakes and what to do in the event of one.Opposite the museum was a micro brewery where Ant sampled all the local beers (what a surprise!).Lucky had recommended an American Southern style restaurant in town where we ate before heading back to the bar to meet the rest of the gang.

Today is our last day together as half of us are continuing onto a tour of the South Island and the rest are heading back to Auckland with Lucky.Lucky has been an amazing tour guide and really looked after us so we had a collection for her on the bus which Chris is planning on giving to her tonight.The bar is attached to the hostel and there was a group of lads in there on a stag weekend.The groom was dressed in a red dress and white cap!!! As Chris did his bit for Lucky (and Lucky responded), the groom and his stags also started cheering and clapping.He came round and kissed all the girls and high-fived all the guys and there proceeded to strip off (standing on the counter!!) to "You Can Leave Your Hat On" from The Full Monty - unfortunately we didn't have our camera with us.As Ant and I had already eaten, we left the others to it and headed back to our room.