Wellington to Napier

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We said goodbye to the South Island (not literally) and got back on the ferry to Windy Welly. Having already seen a fair bit of the sights we decided to only stay for 2 nights to allow more time to see some 'pastures new'.

But we did manage to squeeze in a few drinks (alcoholic and tea) with our good pal Amy (she's from Bishop's Waltham not Southampton don't you know!?) who's living the high life with her 50k per annum job (NZ dollars not pounds, but it still sounds good for an OT)!

We also headed back to the Te Papa museum, as we never finished it last time! It's well worth a visit, although we were a bit rushed again because we spent most of the afternoon climbing Mount Victoria (yes we are getting obsessed with this whole view-from-the-top type stuff). Despite it being fairly overcast and the climb being a bit steep, the view of the city was pretty cool! After all this exertion of our bodies and brains, we finally got round to recharging ourselves with those good people at Burger Fuel - think fast food but, you know, good! (Thanks for the recommendation Nic!) The jury is still out on whether it's better than Fergburger...

So we jumped back on the bus to head to Napier, the Art Deco capital of NZ, and possibly the world. The whole town was pretty much destroyed by an earthquake in the 1930's and was rebuilt in style! On the way we dropped in to a wildlife reserve to see some Kiwis (birds) and Tuataras (lizard-esque) amongst other things. The Kiwis were bigger than we expected, but as they're nocturnal we have no photos to show you I'm afraid! The Tuatara is a living dinosaur basically, only found in NZ, but not quite as impressive as a T-Rex or something. And we have no photo of these either, just because we forgot to take any! Later that day we went to the Tui beer brewery, where we enjoyed 3 large, cold handles for the bargain price of $2 (that's 75p for you lot). Unfortunately you have to neck them in about 45 minutes, which meant a burpy afternoon back on the bus! As if that wasn't enough, we then called in to the Mission Estate winery for a few tastings too! They were all very good, although we couldn't help feeling that the wedding in the reception room next door didn't want us hanging around reducing the classiness of the place for too long!

In Napier we stayed at NZs 1st ever prison, closed down in 1993 and reopened as a backpackers in 2002. It was pretty cool but after more than 1 night it might freak you out a bit (we avoided the late night ghost stories just in case!).

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Photos

Wellington
From up on Mount Victoria

Napier Prison
Cheesy or what!?

Napier Prison
Breaking out after serving our time (i.e on the way to the bus)!

Napier
Pretty fountain - it changed colours as you watched. Ooh, ahhh, wow etc etc