The town of Paekakariki is around an hour outside of Wellington and was a good place for a stopover before spending 4 nights in Wellington. We arrived at the campsite about an hour before sunset so we parked up the van and went for a walk to explore the beach and park beside the campsite. The weather still wasn't great so we didn't hang around the blustery shore for too long before heading back to the van to cook dinner.The next morning and it is the final leg of our journey in the North Island its hard to believe that we have been in New Zealand for a month now and in 4 days we will be sailing to the South Island. We leave Paekakariki around midday and head straight into Wellington city centre for a look around. After negotiating the not so complicated one way system we park up and have some lunch in the park at the quayside. After lunch we decide to do a bit of window shopping which is always good fun until you see something or 5 things that you want but cant have! It doesn't take long for us to decide that we prefer Wellington to Auckland as it definitely has a more modern and trendy feel to it with lots of funky shops, cafes to people watch and trendy bars. The whole place feels fresher and brighter and whilst it is a big city like any other big city it just feels like it has more to offer. After taking in some of the sights down at the quayside and having window shopped till we dropped at some of the well known shopping districts we had a pit stop smoothie and a coffee at a café. Never ones to let the opportunity go by we used their free internet to catch up with some more of our blog by uploading yet more of the hundreds of photos we keep taking! We manage to find a campsite only a couple of minutes from the centre of town which also happens to have a cozy snug with sky TV! We watch some rugby before heading back to the van to have some dinner and a couple of glasses of wine.Our first full day in Wellington and we wake up to find the campervan swaying around in some fairly gusty sea winds. As its definitely not a day to be walking around outside we decide to take in the Te Papa museum, a reasonably new facility with lots of interactive displays and fee admission! The museum is huge and spans over 6 levels with amazing displays on natural forces, birds, animals, ocean life as well as Maori exhibits, art exhibits and hundreds of other things we didn't have time to see! After the museum our intention had been to have a walk round another bit of the city centre however the wind was still gusting and it was far to cold to be outside so it was back to the campsite for laundry and more rugby on the sky TV!So thank goodness the next day brings some much better weather. The sky is blue and it definitely feels more like spring so we get wrapped up and head to the botanic gardens. You can either drive directly to the gardens or you can get the Wellington cable car from the town out to the gardens so being the tourists that we are we opted for the cable car. The botanic gardens were lovely and maybe because it was such a beautiful day it just made the whole place look really pretty. We spent most of the morning walking around the different gardens kicking ourselves that for the first time since we left Scotland we forgot the camera! The most exciting part of our visit to the gardens was our time spent at the duck pond. First we had to witness a lady who was feeding the ducks open her bag of bread and produce a piece of bread that was completely covered with green mould. Now I don't mean just a couple of spots of mould I mean the entire piece of bread was green and when she dropped it on the ground it puffed like a cloud of green dust. Then when we thought it couldn't get any more disturbing than that we had to watch a big bully boy duck attack a little girl duck. He actually jumped on her back and proceeded to try to drown her and bite her neck with his massive orange beak. At first we thought they were mating and like everyone else around the pond decided to keep out the way however it soon became obvious that it was a vicious attack on the poor girl duck. After about 2 minutes of the attack I could bare it no longer and had to run to the edge of the pond and scare the bad duck away allowing the little girl to make her escape! After the trauma of the duck pond we finished walking around the park and got the cable car back to the town centre to get some lunch. After lunch we had the very boring job of trying to sort out the flights that we hadn't managed to change when we were at Palmerston North. As predicted it was a complete nightmare and consisted of a phone call to the airline, a visit to STA travel agents in Wellington and then finally a visit to Air New Zealand who despite having nothing to do with our initial booking were able to sort out the mess. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the town enjoying the sunny weather while it lasted!The next day, our last full day in Wellington, the rain and blustery winds are back with a vengeance! It is unbelievably cold and miserable and all the things we had planned to do were outside and whilst we are not shy of a bit of cold weather this would have given the arctic a run for its money! We spent the first part of the morning on the computer catching up on emails and pondering what on earth we were going to do once that was done. After the emails it was lunchtime so we headed into town to get something to eat and search for inspiration for what to do with the afternoon. After battling the winds to get some soup and sandwiches at the supermarket we braved the high winds at the shorefront and had our lunch in the van. We then decided to take a walk to the cinema to see if there were any decent films on that were worth a watch on a cold and rainy Tuesday afternoon. We decided to go and see a film called Taken and we only had an hour to kill until the film started so we went for a walk to a street called Cuba street. This is the street mentioned in the guides where you go for one of a kind shops selling lots of unusual clothes and accessories. It was full of men wearing tartan tights and girls wearing tutus and tiaras which made for a very entertaining all be it slightly disturbing tour of gothic Wellington. We then spent the afternoon watching the film and I am not sure if its out in Scotland at the moment but if it is I definitely recommend you go and see it as it has you hooked within minutes and keeps you on the edge of your seat until the end. After the cinema it was about 6pm and all the Wellington workers had spilled out of their work and into the pubs. As we were walking back to the van all the bars were busy and full of life so we decided to have one drink before heading home. As always seems to be the case with us we stumble upon a bar which is having a meet and greet with one of New Zealand's local brewers to launch their new range of lagers. The result for us being that we were thrust a couple of beer glasses and were soon supping on free beer getting a running commentary from the guy who makes the stuff! It was brilliant as he was so passionate and enthusiastic about his product you couldn't help getting into it! Soon we were swilling the beer in the glass like you do wine and smelling it for hints of ginger and subtle under tones of lemongrass! An hour later we have sampled the entire range, got and invite to the brewers restaurant in Christchurch and have not spent a penny. Feeling pretty pleased with ourselves we decided to quit while we were ahead and returned to the campsite to make dinner.Our last morning, today we sail the notoriously choppy Cook Straight from Wellington in the North Island to Picton on the South Island. Much to our horror the weather is still atrocious and we are dreading the trip. As we discovered in Fiji we both go a bit green on choppy seas. We have a couple of hours to kill and speaking of kills Michael was about 2 days away from killing me with the reek coming from his walking shoes! Having walked the streets of New York, Hollywood Boulevard, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite National Park and well you get the idea! After all the walking his shoes hadn't faired so well and after purchasing every odor eating product available on the southern hemisphere it was time for them to go! We left the campsite and headed straight to the outdoor shops which always seem to congregate around the same street corner. Twenty minutes later Michael went from a depressed boy who was having to give up his beloved walking shoes to a happy boy who had an almost identical but significantly fresher replacement. We then got some lunch supplies for the boat to save us from a fate worse than death in the form of over priced cardboard and rubber ham sandwiches care of the ferry canteen and then headed to the port to check in. The check in and boarding were completely painless and apart from the one guy who abandoned his car in the queue due to some ill timed diarrhoea it all went swimmingly! We got the low down from the girl who ran the café on the boat that the turbulence is worst in the middle hour so like a traveling pro I read my book until it started getting choppy and then I pulled my hat over my eyes and slept through it all. Mike with his iron stomach powered through the whole experience barely taking his eyes off his book (damn those James Patterson novels are good)! On approach to the south island the weather vastly improved and we were able to venture out onto the deck to take in some of the amazing views. The ferry weaves its way through the narrow Picton Sounds (lots of grassy volcanic outcrops of land) before it finally docks at the small town of Picton, it is here that our South Island adventure begins!!