The ferry crossing from the South Island was great, the Cook Straits were like the preverbial 'mill pond'. We stayed in the center of the city in order to get good access to the sights. We had more of a cultural experience visiting a couple of museums (Te Papa & the cable car museum), the observatory (taking a leisurely stroll back to town through the botanical gardens), a preview night at the theatre (it was the cheapest night to watch 'Doubt') and no visit would be complete without the LOTR experience, we watched 'Last King of Scotland' in the cinema that hosted the premier of LOTR - Return of the King. Each seat had plaques with the names of who sat there during the film, we however sat in the seats of 2 nobodys, life's like that !!!!