From Queenstown we headed through Christchurch again for one night (only to find out our bagel shop was closed…noooo), and then onto Kaikoura again. The night we stayed in kaikoura we got hit by a crazy storm with a load of rain and very noisy gales. It did not bode well for our ferry crossing the next day. We left Kaikoura around 9ish to head to the North island. The south island flew by so we were a little confused as to how we were heading north already. The storm from last night had died down a little but we were battling through the wind (probably a little over dramatically, the screams weren’t really needed), to get to the bus and the sea did look worryingly choppy. After stopping at a supermarket (that sold mini eggs! – we decided to stock up by buying 2 big bags that we thought would last days and days…in reality they lasted a day), we arrived at the ferry port for the 3 hour crossing.

3 hours was a lie. The journey was 5 hours of hell. It started off ok, but within an hour the ferry was swaying so much we were struggling to stay in our seats, a vending machine of drinks fell over, they almost ran out of sick bags, and eventually had to make an announcement for doctors to help out. Why are journeys so dramatic for us?! Our strategies for coping this time involved:
•Screaming
•Trying to sleep and failing.
•Running after our bottle of diet coke that went missing
•Sophie describing her levels of sickness on other journeys to make us feel better
•And lastly (and the best), finding that Joel’s i-pod had B*witched, c’est la vie, on it and singing along loudly.

We did eventually stumble off and onto a very small bus which couldn’t really fit us and our bags on. We dropped off at our hostel in Wellington (windiest place ever), the capital of NZ. We saw the cinema where LOTR premiere was but seeing as we hate the movie’s we were more excited by the poster advertising that the Shopaholic film was released the next day. Luckily our seasickness had left us and our appetites miraculously returned when we found out we could get cheap Dominos through our hostel.

The next day we went to Te Papa museum, but were distinctly unimpressed by it – the giant squid that it’s famous for wasn’t even there! We had a quick look at the Maori history floor (so we could pretend we were actually interested in history) and the Maori settlement floor (so Gee and Emily could petend they liked their degree subject-Geography). Having ticked off culture on the list, we headed (a little too excited) to see Shopaholic in the cinema. Great film but a little close to home after our spending spree in our new favourite store, Glassons:
•‘We totally need another top, the Inca trail ruined our clothes’
•‘We spent 50p on budget pasta for dinner , so I can buy these shorts yeah?’
In fact, every time we convert NZ dollars to real money, we think its cheap so convince ourselves that we have got ourselves a bargain in this ‘economic climate’, even thought we know that (a) our conversion rate is very rough and (b) the credit crunch really doesn’t affect clothes.

The highlight of this cinema visit was seeing Craig Revel Horwood coming out of Shopaholic (not living up to a stereotype at all then), and running after him down the street like maniacs. Unfortunately we lost our nerve at the last minute and didn’t get a photo (nor did we ask him to Cha Cha Cha Eleanor!). We did, however, start ballroom and salsa dancing down the streets of Wellington which I’m pretty sure is a new low point.
For a capital city, Wellington really isn’t that bag. Infact no cities in NZ are. Skyscrapers don’t dominate as much…instead they’re all far prettier, much less congested and more pedestrianised. Wellington also has the best pub – the General Practioner – where we all whiled away an afternoon after finishing out sight seeing (going up a fernicular and wandering around some botanical gardens).
SJ x