Blogs from Wellington, Wellington Region, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania - page 6

Being the only American Spicer in NZ, I 'raced' down to Wellington via a twelve hour bus trip and stayed in the nicest hostel I have found, the YHA. Halloween out with Galen, who I hadn't seen in fifteen years was a great time. He put me up for a few days while I explored Wellington, the numerous harbours, steep 'hills', the local art museums and Te Papa - the best national mueseum I have come across - which was actually free. The City Art Gallery was chalked full of Yusama's dot works, which to say the least were bizzarely interesting. On a budget I sought out an organic farm to live on for the next few weeks. After sending out emails to a few, including (by accident) an 'Au Natural' - nudist farm, I managed ... read more

We decided to move on from Nelson on Saturday as it was raining all day and there was little prospect of an improvement for a few days. We had a fairly hairy drive along Queen Charlotte Drive, with Lys clinging tightly to her arms rests, but we arrived in one piece and saw some beautiful views of the Sound on the way. We stayed at the ferry port of Picton that night and headed south for Blenheim because Lys had found out about some Stock Car Racing that afternoon. It was the NZ national championships. The sun was baking hot, as per the forecast and we spent most of the day there. No pictures for you as we used video and I haven't worked out how to upload that to the blog. It was fairly exciting ... read more

We left Taupo and headed west towards New Plymouth, as being centrally located we had the choice of either coast, but the views of Mt Egmont swayed out decision. We took the scenic route down through Whanganui national park, where the lush green scenery was beautiful, before arriving at Stratford and headed to New Plymouth on the coast. The road around the west coast of the north island goes round in a large circle, and right in the centre is the Egmont National Park and its incredible mountain. We headed up to the mountain on our first day for some better views, before driving down the 'Surf Highway' to Wanganui. At Wanganui we spent some time on the stunning Wanganui River Road, where the lush green hills roll straight into the river, and continued south towards ... read more

We drove into Wellington but ended up in Eastbourne lucky really because we forgot the camera, so because we had to turn around we ended up back at the camp ground for the camera and toilet stops of course. So we drove into Wellington again and this time ended up there!!! We got all day parking for $3. We walked to the Beehive just in time for a tour which lasted 1 hour we were the only kiwison the tour. eThe kids were awesome they asked heaps of questions and Aimee got to be the chair in the Maori select committee we got to be the opposition. The buildings were impressive Mark liked the government library building Holly did a cartwheel in the ballroom. Some old chinese lady was fascinated with all 4 kids and kept ... read more

Spending Christmas and New Years in the southern hemisphere is pretty fun. Hot summer days spent lounging on the beach with the sun setting around 9pm makes a pretty good atmostphere for holiday festivites. I spent my christmas at Lake Taupo in Rainbow Lodge. This funky hostel put on a three day party filled with activites, food and booze. We had a giant christmas feast followed with delicious desert and then once the food settled we played a giant soccer match with another hostel. The only rule was that everyone must have a can of beer in their hands at all times. The penalty for breaking this rule was a shot of jagermeister! It was pretty wild, people going all out with beer exploding everywhere! Later that day I lounged down at the lake and even ... read more