Leaving Kaikoura we took the ferry back across the Cook Straits over to Wellington, and passing through the Marlborough Sounds Jess and I saw two dolphins! Pretty lucky! They were really cool.

When I arrived in Wellington for the second time on my way back up north, I was lucky enough to stay with some lovely friends called Andy and Sarah from back home. I have known them for years since Andy is one of my older brother Ben's best friends and Sarah is his girlfriend. It was so nice to see them for the first time in 18 months since they moved out here.

That evening we headed down to one of the many pubs in Wellington (well I say pub... not the same as an English pub, but just about as close as you'll get over here!) called the Backbencher. It was really cool because they have loads of models of people up on the walls, mainly politicians or sportsmen. It was so funny! They were kind of like 3D characatures of people and really funny! Then we went back to their house where Sarah cooked us a delicious lamb curry which we had with naan bread and a nice glass of wine. Then we played on their wii, and I didn't get competetive at all, honest..... hahaha. It was a really good night just to catch up and chill out a bit.

The next day I got a lie in whilst Andy and Sarah headed off to work. When I woke up I found my way to the bus station and took a bus over to the Miramar suburb which took about half an hour to get to. The Weta Cave is there which is like a mini museum for the Weta Workshops which made all the props and costumes for Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately people aren't allowed into the actual workshop due to health and safety rules because it is an industrial work place, and also due to confidentiality of the films that they are working on and such. It was really cool though! They had a massive Uruk Hai ork in the entrance which was pretty cool and scary! haha. I bought a really nice and good quality signed extended edition location guidebook which I look forward to getting stuck into on my plane up to LA on Tuesday! It will be really cool because there are so many places that I have now been to! I get easily excited...

I then hopped back on the bus to the city centre and went over the the Westpac Stadium, which is the All Blacks ground in Wellington. I was hoping it would be open to have a look around but unfortunately it wasn't. So instead I went back to Lambton Quay and had a look around a few shops, then got the Wellington cable car up to the botanical gardens and took a half hour's walk through them - they are really beautiful! I then headed back to Sarah and Andy's place and just chilled out for a bit until they got home from work. When Sarah got back we had some garlic and herbs cream cheese and pate on french stick, yum yum! We then made our way down to the city centre and met Andy at the cinema where we watched a NZ film called Boy about a Maori family. It was really good! It probably wouldn't appeal to most people who aren't Kiwis unless they are interested in the Maoris, but I really enjoyed it. Afterwards we went to a restaurant nearby which is famous for it's desserts. I had banoffee pie which was absolutely delicious but SOOOOOOOO filling. I only just managed it. Sarah had lemon chocolate cheesecake which I very nearly also went for, and Andy had a triple chocolate brownie. We could barely move afterwards! We then went to a cool bar called the library for a drink afterwards, then went back to bed as we were all pretty tired!

The next day Andy and Sarah had taken the day off work to spend with me, which was very nice of them :) We left the house at around 11.30am and went up past Sarah's work to a view point in Karori. It was really pretty! We then drove through the city centre over to Mount Victoria, which also had really good views of Wellington city centre and also of the Miramar peninsula and a lot of the suburbs and the airport. Luckily for us it was a good day in Wellington weatherwise, so we had really clear views! The majority of my time in Wellington it was raining and foggy, but today it was sunny and just quite windy, but I can cope with that! After Mount Victoria we headed over the the Miramar peninsula and went to a beautiful memorial on the top of a hill there. We drove around to past a couple of bays on the other side of the peninsula and stopped off at Breaker Bay which was beautiful and we went for a walk along it. We went on to a cafe called the Bach for lunch, and we could see the Kaikoura mountain range from the windows as we were eating! Stunning.

We headed back up to the hills surrounding Wellington to a big wind turbine which was pretty cool. Then we went back to Andy and Sarah's house where they laughed at my embarassing canyon swing and skydive dvds! They were funny though. We decided to go for a walk along the water front, so it took us about 20 minutes to get down there and we stopped at Max Brewery for a drink when we got there. We then walked more along the water to one of Andy's favourite bars. It was really cool actually, it was underground and had the biggest selection of beers probably in Wellington. I liked the ambiance in there, it was kind of dark and dingy and atmospheric. We then headed to a cocktail bar where I had a delicious cocktail called mango star. Then we decided that we fancied Thai for dinner so we popped around the corner to one of the best Thai restaurants in town and had the best meal I had eaten in a long time! I had duck green curry with coconut rice and roti bread and I was in heaven! By the time we finished we were all pretty tired and it was fairly late so we headed back to their place again to bed. It was a great day and they were so kind to me. The best way to see a city or anywhere is to be shown it by people who know it really well and live there. I had a really great time, it was nice to catch up with Sarah and Andy and I miss them now! I hope to see them again soon.

Not much longer left in NZ now! I leave on Tuesday :( I'm getting sad now!

Joelle xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx