Our time in the North Island of New Zealand was coming to an end. We were booked to take the van across on the ferry in a couple of days, but planned to see what Wellington had to offer first.

After negotiating the crazy traffic on the way into the city (something we had become unaccustomed to after the empty wide roads on the rest of the island) we opted to park the van outside a 'hostel' and pay a fee to use their facilities. Lets just say we were both pleased we weren't staying in the hostel itself, it was a huge sprawling house with a large number of apparent long term residents! It was the only place we could stay within easy access of the city though, so we made the most of it.

Being within easy walking distance of the fantastic Te Papa Tongarewa museum and The Botanic Gardens was a real plus. The museum was free and offered a huge selection of different exhibition spaces to learn about anything from how New Zealand was formed (from shifting tectonic plates) to an amazing colossal squid floating in formaldehyde.

A highlight of our time in Wellington especially for Tim, was a visit to 'Weta Workshop' just on the outskirts of town. A newly offered tour gave a glimpse into the amazing model work the team there did on films like 'Lord of the Rings', 'The Hobbit', 'District 9' and 'Tintin'.

Unfortunately Tim didn't get to visit the Motion Capture stage where Andy Serkis and Peter Jackson worked their magic but he vowed to come back in the near future and make amends.