April 12 - 15

We boarded the Interislander Ferry from Picton and had to pull up behind a huge livestock truck that smelt like the inside of a festival portaloo! Praying that the smell wouldn't penetrate our little camper we made our way up to the top deck to take in the views of the Marlborough Sounds on our way to the North Island. Huge forest-covered mountains dive into the ocean all around, and the incredible scenery was a perfect way to summarise our South Island experience as we bid farewell to the place.

Arriving in Wellington we made our way out of town to the suburb of Porirua and the Camp Elsdon Holiday Park which would be our home for the next 3 days. We parked up and wandered into town for a nightcap in a small bar which, annoyingly, was empty and meant that we couldn't replace the wine glass I'd smashed in Queenstown so one of us still had to sip our fine Marlborough wine out of a coffee mug!

Our first full day in Wellington turned out to be a long one. We caught the train into town and wandered around getting our bearings. We wandered around Cuba Street, famous for its quirky independent bars and shops and also a huge second-hand bookstore where we managed to flog some old books in exchange for some equally old but unread ones. We eventually ended up at 'Te Papa' (Maori for 'Our Place') which is the national museum. As museums go, it's a big one with some really interesting exhibits on Kiwi animals - they have a huge skeleton of a Blue Whale and a giant squid preserved in formaldehyde - and the exhibition on extreme weather, of which New Zealand gets a lot of! This included a house that you can stand in and experience an earthquake first-hand, nowhere near as scary as the real thing we experienced in Christchurch. There was also a section with stories from people that made the 3 month trip to NZ in the early 20th century. The museum is superb and you could easily spend a number of hours there if you had the stamina and really loved museums!

Once we left Te Papa it was closing on 6pm so we sat in a bar on the quay and contemplated our next move. We decided to see the city at night so stayed in town for the evening and went for a couple of probably-too-expensive drinks in a cool little Irish Bar called Molly Malones with a live band playing a mixture of Irish Folk and American Country music.

Day 2 in Wellington and it was time for a tour of parliament. The tour itself was ok, but the guide seemed to be on fast-forward and skimmed over a lot of the details that often make these tours worthwhile. We also had to endure a family of far-too-american Americans who loudly asked stupid questions inbetween loud gum-chewing. We also got to see one of the sub-commitee rooms that was decorated with some incredible Maori wood carvings. The highlight of the tour was sitting in on parliament in session and watching some of the lively debate and MP's throwing insults at each other. One of the questions we saw being discussed was a particularly controversial one that ended up making the news later that evening. After the tour we went for a walk along the quayside and reflected on how Wellington is a pretty cool place that, in typical Kiwi style, doesn't try too hard to impress visitors, it just manages it effortlessly. Before jumping on the train back to Porirua we spotted a Belgian Bar and decided it would be rude to not go in and grab a Leffe Brune!

The following day we left the campsite and drove through the city to a small suburb called Miramar, home of (Sir?) Peter Jackson's Weta Studios, of Lord Of The Rings fame. The studio was attracting so many visitors that it opened up a small free museum with some of the original props from the LOTR films and others by the studio including District 9 and Avatar. We watched a 20 minute DVD on the history of the place and some of the incredible work they've done, I was seriously envious of the guys that get to work there and play around with monsters and guns all day! I finally managed to persuade Janine to give LOTR a second chance by throwing in a little of the fact that she may now recognise some of the locations and so on our way to Napier we stopped at a Warehouse store and spent 20 minutes rummaging through boxes of DVD's until we eventually managed to find the first LOTR film...I'll get her to love it if it kills me!