Thursday - Start of Trip

I finished work at 5pm and headed home to pack as we had to leave for 6pm. Kym took us to the airport in the rush hour traffic. We got to the airport and I quickly weighed my bag as I swore it was over the 7kg carry-on allowance. the guys reckon it was only 5kg. Surprise surprise it was 8kgs. Luckily we didn't get weighed on check-in. We grabbed a bite to eat before boarding the plane. It only took 45 minutes and we were in Wellington. The flight was pretty smooth for the Windy City although we did get a bit out turbulence in Christchurch.

When we landed we grabbed the airport shuttle to the CBD. Wellington is so different than Christchurch. The streets were full, bars overfilled with punters, lights lit up restaurants, there was a buzz in the air.

We checked-in to our hostel. A bare room with a sofa and bunk beds. We dropped off our bags and Stevie and I headed out for a beer and ended up in some old Irish bar.

We headed back around 10.30 for an early night.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday - Weta Studio
Last nights sleep was minimal. Our floor looked empty. Something out of the movie The Shining, however around 2am there was loads of weird banging and walking and doors opening. We both salvaged what sleep we could from the hours that remained between the bangs.

Our first full day of the trip. We decided to head to Weta Cave. The design studio for District 9, Avatar, Tin Tin, but most famously The Lord of the Rings. We left our bags at the Hostels storage box. $5 for 12hrs. Before grabbing some breakfast. It look us ages to decide what to have and where to go because Stevie wanted specific porridge. We ended up with a croissant and beef pie.
The bus ride to the Weta Cave didn't take long at all, the best part of the ride was going through an old single lane Victorian tunnel under the hill.
The Weta cave is in the middle of a residential area and blended in with all the homes around it with its typical kiwi white wooded cladding. The only thing out of place was the 3 giant trolls out the front.

I was straight in there while Stevie took photos of me pretending I was in each scene.
We had come all this way so decided to book the tour too. While we waited for the tour to start Stevie and I looked around the store, miniatures, figurines, armour and posters from all the movies Weta have been involved in filled the room.

We left with a desire to be movie artists. We headed back to the CBD to pick up our bags and grab some lunch before the road trip begun. We managed to pick up the car earlier than our reservation which was great because the drive took longer than expected. Stevie thought the rental guy was funny when he said the car came with luggage as we had already put our gear in.
The estimated 4hr drive took 5hrs. The drive up was pretty uneventful on route 1 a few food stops and over taking the arctic lorries.

We finally got to national park village at 7pm. Checked-in (we managed to get a room upgrade) and the headed out for dinner.

We ended up at a restaurant at the bottom of the road. I right old "in the sticks" place. It took us ages to get served. We had to lay our own table, when our lemon and lime bitters came, there was no bitter. Our fries with Sour cream and Salsa sauce was replaced with ketchup and when our pizza came the base was raw....

...we made the most of it. We then had to got up and pay ourself. The bill only came to $18. I thought brilliant! Karma. Bad services, cheap price. I almost entered my PIN number when Stevie pipes up and say "hold on, that cheap can you please check the items." WTF who does that!!! The bill eventually totalled $35.

Early start tomorrow we headed to bed.