Written 30th September 2011

Kai Ora…

Good morning… I am currently sat on the top deck of the Interisland ferry from Wellington to Picton as it is time to move on to the south island. Its 8:32am, the sun is shining, there's not a cloud in the sky and the air is crisp. I am wearing 3 layers, sunglasses and my new white hat, with a bobble on it! In fact I have just taken the hat off as I don't want a dodgy sun tan J

After our night in the National Park, where we enjoyed a great evening in the pub as there was nowhere else to go, we got up early to make our way to Wellington. Between the two was wasn't a great deal to see so we more or less headed straight down the island only stopping for food and toilet stops. We did however stumble across a giant Wellington Boot when we passed though the town famous for the 'Gum Boot' throwing championship, and also a town where everything in the town had the word 'Bull' in it. For example… 'The Value-bull shop'… I thought it was a load of, 'Bull!' The views on the way however are great. New Zealand is home to some of the best mountain views I have seen. You can be driving along a gigantic are of flat land and then all of a sudden a mountain appears. We have just set off! Getting colder….

When we arrived in Wellington I checked in at the YHA and then Ben, Terry Peter and I all went to the Museum. Te Papa is the National Museum of New Zealand and is free J We had a wonder around for a few hours and saw a few good exhibitions. We then decided it was too nice outside to be inside so went to ride Wellington's famous cable car. This famous cable card is rubbish! Billed as the best thing since sliced bread it is literally a piece of public transport to get the top of the hill and that's it. At the top there was a closed Cable car museum, a closed Café and some nice Botanic gardens with lots of routes taking you back down to the city…Not much use when you have a return ticket!

We went back down on the fantastic tourist attraction and had some tea at a Malaysian restaurant. I ordered Chicken and Veg fried rice… the Veg was Broccoli and Cauliflower, right up my street!

Anyway… we had a look through the guide book and then decided tohead to the Mermaid Bar. Put it this was it was pretty good J

When we got back to the hostel we had a few games of pool before getting an early night. This morning we were up at 6:30am to get the shuttle bus to the ferry. It has just set off and I am going to enjoy the fantastic views of both islands as we sail between them. Its time to zip the coat up and put the hat back on as now it is bloody freezing!

Ta tar for now

Tom x