Tomorrow we leave the North Island behind after four days in New Zealand's capital, and head over the Cook's Straight into Picton on the South Island.

We arrived in Wellington late on Monday after a four hour bus journey from River Valley. After we checked in it seemed like a good idea to check out the main entertainment hub of the city, and see what was on offer. The main street in the city is packed full of pubs, bars, restaurants and pool halls so this seemed like a good place to start, but the long journey had started to take it's toll and it ended up being a quiet night of food and the cinema after all, leaving us ready for activities galore the next day.

On our first full day we headed out to the museum of Wellington, or 'Te Papa', which literally translates as 'our place'. However, instead of a stuffy old building full of relics and boring information, it is a brand new, modern building with loads of interactive displays. The museum covers everything from how the earth was formed to modern day art displays, and the information is presented from both the scientific angle and also the beliefs of the Maori people.

We spent most of the morning wandering about the museum trying out the displays which included; standing in a room that represents how it feels to be in an earthquake, watching a film showing the way that Maori's believe New Zealand was formed, learning what to do in case of any natural disaster and looking at hundreds of art pieces and paintings. There was of course the usual skeletal collections that are in most museums and various stuffed animals, but most of these things we had already seen in Auckland.

Once we left the museum we headed out towards the red cable car that goes up to the botanical gardens and the top of the city. On the way we walked through 'Writer's Way', where there are quotes from various people saying what they like most about Wellington carved into stone and placed randomly about the floor and in the water etc... The cable car ride itself only takes five minutes from top to bottom, and although the views from the top are quite good, there isn't much to actually look at in the city. The picture above shows pretty much all there is to see.

We walked back through the botanical gardens into the city centre again and then spent the next couple of hours wandering around the shops and stalls. That evening we went to the Cue Room for a few games of pool, which somehow turned into three hours of pool (for the price of one hour though!!) and we are actually getting quite good now.

The next day was spent looking around more shops and stalls after a well needed lie in, and passed pretty uneventfully except for the growing winds. We really found out why Wellington is referred to as the 'Windy City' and it took us quite some time to struggle back up the hill to our hostel at the end of the day!

Today we spent the afternoon at the National Tattoo Museum for a look around. Some of the designs are amazing, and the way the Maori people manage to put someone's life story into a tattoo is fantastic.

We leave nice and early again tomorrow morning for our three hour ferry crossing and then it is on to Kaikoura to go and find us some whales!!