....and the start of the North Island

And so to Wellington, the capital of NZ and our first foray onto the North Island, I have to say I was loath to leave the South but we'd already gone over our allocated time in the south. And so it ended with a quick hop onto a Cook strait ferry and after taking in some wonderful Marlborough Sounds scenery and views of the Kaikoura hills on the eastern side of the South Island it was over to the astonishingly well named Windy Wellington. Coming into the harbour the wind appeared from nowhere and cleared the deck within 5 minutes, it was unbelievable, not cold just really really gusty, I was the last person to leave the deck...watching for sea birds lost it's appeal after about 5 minutes!

When we landed we headed straight up the cable car to the botanical gardens which is on the top of a hill with great views of the city and harbour and walked down through the gardens to the town, there were some lovely lilies and orchids in the glasshouse (see pics) and trees and flowers from all over NZ and the world, it was a very pleasant place to pass a couple of hours. Just at the bottom of the gardens we came across a cemetery where a number of NZ dignitaries were buried but bizarrely half of it had been moved....to the other side of a bridge over a busy 6 lane highway. They were moved to accommodate a ring road no less, not sure what anyone has done to deserve such a fate, clearly the Kiwis can be an unsentimental bunch when it comes to road planning! We went from there to view the Parliament buildings which are a real clash of architectural styles (see pics, the 3 buildings are all lined up next to each other, I couldn't get them all into the same shot). After walking for a good few hours we decided it was time for some nosh and having ummd and ahhd for a while we plumped for a very cheap Malaysian place, we had what at the time was lovely food but it was probably too cheap as I had a very disturbed night that night, no details need to be shared, nuff said!

Next day we went back to Wellington, it just so happened that we were in the town at the same time as the All Whites (Kiwi national football team) World Cup 2010 2nd leg play off which if they won they would go to South Africa. Town was packed with Kiwi soccer fans and also a smattering of Arabs courtesy of their opponents Bahrain, there was a good atmosphere in town but sadly I was not in tip top form to soak it up courtesy of our Malaysian friends so while Claire took a walk, I snoozed in the van and ate bread and honey!

When Claire returned I mustered the energy to go and see a place that I'd read a lot of good things about, called Te Papa (translates in Maori as 'our place'), it is the national museum of NZ and from the brief visit that we made it really seemed fantastic. We went through an exhibition explaining all about the geology of NZ, from how they monitor how much the island is moving (see 'end of the south island' pics for the landmarks they use for this), to an earthquake simulator and all sorts of other fascinating stuff. But this was just an appetiser, the main attraction was a marae which is a Maori meeting place that they use for formal gatherings of the various tribes. It is so intricately carved with many different facets to it, there was a beautiful stained glass window and a gateway/entrance outside along with a massive slab of culturally significant pounamu (greenstone) and best of all the wharenui which is almost crib like and took my breath away, it was all so colourful with so many contrasting geometric and tribal designs intermingled with lots of Maori characters, the whole place was just magical. Enough of me talking about it, check the pics, I hope they do it justice! As with most places in NZ I'd love to go back to Te Papa and see more, 3 hours after a dodgy stomach definitely wasn't enough but better 3 hours than none at all.

Marcus, there's a special pic in this section for you!

PS NZ beat Bahrain 1-0 and wil be in SA in June