Goodbye South Island, Hello North

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ridiculously early start (4.20am!) and we were off to Picton to catch the first Interislander Ferry of the day. We didn't plan on getting up that early when we booked the morning crossing but hadn't seen the 5.25am check in for the six thirty trip...or the half hour drive to the docks. After that we were glad that the 3 hour crossing was completely calm as we had heard that it can be a bit choppy, so we managed to doze all the way and woke up in Wellington.

Wellington is a 'proper' city and much livelier than anywhere else we have seen here so far. There are lovely quayside areas with coffee shops, rollerbladers and people bustling by. We watched a few kids try their hand at water walking (basically big inflatable hamster balls you go in which float on the water) and rugby players jumping off a plank into the harbour (as you do on a tuesday morning) and wondered why no one seemed to be at work!!

Wanderings of the city took us to Cuba Street which is renowned for being a cafe culture and bohemian kind of street. We headed there to find lunch but were a bit disappointed to find a lot of run down shops and pubs. So we branched off to Dixon Street and spotted a lovely Deli cafe (Dixon Street Deli) and shared a wonderful selection of salads and a thai chicken filo. By this time we were starting to flag after our early start but ducked into the Te Papa museum and managed to make it around (most of) it.

The place was vast but really interesting. Everything from Maori history to Giant Squid to Earthquake simulators. No way you could do it all in one visit but we did pretty good. Then back to our motor camp (probably the least luxurious of them all - it's just a car park really) for a well earned sleep...

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