Kia ora from Wellington

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We're writing to you from our 2nd and last night in Wellington. What can we say about Wellington? It's a proper city, a lot like Vancouver. It's quite a change from the small town feel of Kaikoura and Picton. Speaking of which...

It took us about 3.5 hours to drive from Kaikoura to Picton. Again, we had fantastic weather. We stopped at the Ohau fur seal colony on the way north, and I took plenty of photos. As we moved north, the scenery was amazing - huge, grassy hills, and seemingly endless vineyards. We didn't have a chance to stop to taste wine on the way up, but we might on the next leg of our journey.

Picton is a sweet little town, all nestled in tall green hills. It reminds me of islands in the Caribbean except...colder. Still lovely! And QUIET. For a Saturday afternoon, the shops were dead.

Our campground (Parklands Marina) was a great little spot. Quiet, not too far from the ferry terminal, and lots of amenities. When we stopped to make lunch, we were greeted by hungry birds (probably used to being fed by other visitors): a pair of mallards, lots of sparrows, a pair of pukeke.

After dinner, we went into town for a beer at Mickey's. They were having a fancy dress party ("Dress as your favorite pop star") at 8, but no one showed up. Poor DJ Phil! As we were tucking in to bed, we saw fireworks from the local neighborhood - celebrating Guy Fawkes Day!

Up early the next morning to catch the 8:00 ferry. The ride to Wellington was beautiful, and we saw more dusky dolphins in the Marlborough Sounds. It was a bit misty in Wellington, but that cleared up over the afternoon.

We found our hostel (Wellywood Backpackers) easily. It's not too bad...great location, but a big run-down. It made me miss our campsite in Picton! We ate a quick lunch and decided to hike up to the Carter Observatory and Wellington Botanical Gardens. It was a steep hike, but the view from the top was incredible. Even better, the Carter Observatory featured a short video of the launch of GLAST! Marshall's practically famous!

Dinner at Molly Malone's - Wellington's original Irish pub. The food was great, and we decided to stick around for trivia. It was tough, but a lot of fun.

Today, we visited the Te Papa Tongarewa museum. It's huge, excellent, and FREE! Our favorite exhibits were about the plants and animals of New Zealand, and the history of the Maori people. Afterwards, we took the bus to a Wellington suburb, Miramar, to visit the Weta Cave at Weta Studios. This studio was co-founded by Peter Jackson, and they did all of the costumes, make-up, digital effects, etc. for Lord of the Rings, King Kong, the new Tintin movie, etc. It was a pretty small little "museum", but we got to watch a fun behind-the-scenes video about the studio and saw some excellent props and models from the movies.

We head back to Picton tomorrow afternoon, and we'll stay at the same campsite for the night. On our way out of town, we definitely want to visit the Omaka Springs Estates winery (we had a glass of their Sauv Blanc - yum!) near Blenheim. After that...who knows! As much as we'd like to see Abel Tasman, we're really leaning toward Hokitika, the glaciers, and Queenstown. Next post: surprise location!

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Comments

[Mary Luxa]

on second thought.......
a bottle of the sauv blanc sounds delicious.