Today we got up ready to check out at 10am but we weren't leaving the lodge until 2pm. It was a pretty chilled out morning. Some people had gone White Water Rafting or horse trekking. Gina and I didn't do any of these activities so we just sat chatting with everyone. At 2pm we left River Valley to head to Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. We stopped briefly on the way in a place called Bulls to get some food. The drive to Wellington is dominated by the Ruahine and Tararua Ranges and rolling farmland. Not too far from the city we hit the Kapiti Coast, most of which was wrenched out of the sea by a large earthquake in 1855. Kapiti Island is a native bird sanctuary that has a very successful kiwi bird breeding program. It was once home to one of the most feared of all Maori chiefs, Te Rauparaha and his band of Warrior's. We arrived in Wellington around 6.30pm. Wellington is located directly on a major earthquake fault line. Wellington's biggest earthquake was recorded in 1855 and measured 8 on the Richter scale. There is a lot of seismic activity in the area. We checked into our hostel - Base for 1 night which was free with our Explore New Zealand cards. Gina and I wanted to stay longer in Wellington but as the Kiwi Experience bus doesn't alway run everyday and we have limited time to get to Christchurch before 13th November, we have had to only be able to stay for 1 night. We leave really early in the morning tomorrow so we won't get a chance to see the city which is a shame for us. We went out to get some food supplies at the supermarket and on the way back to the hostel we saw Jo that we had met on the first Kiwi Experience bus we had been on. She had a falling out with Scott so she had decided to stay behind for one night longer instead of facing him after the argument. She was in the girls sanctuary dorm room on her own so Gina and I decided to move into that dorm room with her. In the evening we all went out to Basement bar with everyone as most people are staying on in Wellington including the lads so Gina and I won't see these people again until we get to Queenstown. It was a brilliant night. We had managed to persuade Jo to come out as well even though she was going to have a quiet night. All the lads were down at the bar as well. Gina was hitting it off with James and I got very friendly with Graham if you know what I mean wink wink lol.