Hi all!  The last week has been pretty mad, I left Kaikoura last Thursday and took the bus up to Picton.  Stayed at a lovely hostel called the Bayview Backpackers, but it was a good 40 min walk into town so I just took a walk around the Marina and chilled out.  I flew from Picton to Wellington on Friday afternoon.  The airport was literally a shed!  The plane was tiny and it was quite windy so you really felt it flying, was an amazing view over the Sounds and the Cook Strait into Wellington.  I landed just before 6pm and Tali was waiting for me and it was great to see her after 5 years!  Saturday Tali and her partner DJ took me sightseeing around Wellington.  We drove down Scorching Bay for brunch at a place called the Chocolate Fish and it was lush!  We drove a bit more, DJ showed me where Peter Jackson has his studios and all that.  We walked up Mount Vic and they filmed some of LOTR up there, in the first film where Frodo and the other Hobbits hid from the Black Riders on the pathway!  We got to the top for lovely views over Wellington.  It's the third windiest city in the world and it was so, so windy!  We walked around the town and shopped a bit before getting the cable car up to the top of the Botanical Gardens.  We walked back down through the Rose Garden and Graveyard.  We walked so much we were shattered. 

On Sunday we drove up the coast to Kapiti, where Tali works.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we walked along the coast for a bit then had some yummy ice cream!  All this walking should be working off all of the calories I am consuming!

Yesterday Tali became a citizen of New Zealand so we went along to the ceremony.  It was really nice, seeing her become a Kiwi!  Afterwards we went to a Turkish restaurant called Istanbul for a celebratory dinner with friends and some of DJ's family.  The food was delicious!  I was meant to go to Kapiti Island yesterday but the weather was really bad so the ferry was cancelled.  Going tomorrow instead.  I'm leaving Wellington on Sunday and the next stop will be Lake Taupo.  Laters people x x x x x