After having the most glorious sunshine in River Valley- we arrived dripping and freezing in Wellington. It literally didn't stop raining the whole time we were there. Apparantly its the coldest winter they have had in 25yrs- with lows of 7degrees- trust us to pick a dud year! As soon as we arrived- us girls checked ourselves into the Sanctuary ( not up to Auckland standards, but still better than any old dorm). Then we headed out to the Tepapa Museum which was quite good ( feel like i have seen a lot of the stuff before). Two of our friends were due to leave us the following day, so we all decided to head out for a send off meal and hit a few bars. As we were in the sanctuary we got a complimentary glass of champaigne, so us girls headed down to the bar early to claim that- and our whole group was down there. Unbeknown to me- it was my 2nd Fake Birthday night. Everyone had signed a card and over an absolute feast of a chinese ( sooooooo good) a chocolate brithday cake appeared!! It was such a brilliant night- soooo much better than the Cusco disaster. We then partied back at the Base hostal for happy hour before heading out for drinks at an Irish bar. I don't think we got in til about 4 in the end, it was a perfect fake birthday! Unfortunately for our friends- the weather was so bad their ferry was cancelled- but that meant we could have 4 more days with them!! So we spent the rest of our time in Wellington mooching round the shops and cafes, before heading over to the South island on the dreaded ferry ride- 9m high waves had meant serious sea sickness for most of the people arriving from the South island- so we weren't looking fwd to it!