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Wellington Travel Blogs

Background: The Polynesian Maori reached New Zealand in about A.D. 800. In 1840, their chieftains entered into a compact with Britain, the Treaty of Waitangi, in which they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria while retaining territorial rights. In that same year, the British began the first organized colonial settlement. A series of land wars between 1843 and 1872 ended with the defeat of the native peoples. The British colony of New Zealand became an independent dominion in 1907 and supported the UK militarily in both World Wars. New Zealand's full participation in a number of defense alliances lapsed by the 1980s. In recent years, the government has sought to address longstanding Maori grievances.

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By Kazwad
December 2nd 2009

Wells still raining! Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington

Ok - so the weather has not let up since i have arrived, with the exception of one day where i decided to get myself so sunburnt that i can only now sit on my thighs comfortably 4 days later. i only missed one part of my body with cream! Other than that it has given england a run for its money. Although to be fair - i have been told the whole of the country has suffered this front and i should not blame wellington itself. However, the flu i have been in bed with for 3 days i'm sure [View Full Entry]

By Kazwad
November 28th 2009

Windy Welly Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington

Photo 2

So, wellington. After an early hours pajama fire evacuation, i woke up to the whole bus having left for the south island, and an absolute gale blowing outside. It is notorious for the wind here due to the location and shape of the harbour, but walking head on into the wind made my eyes water! what the hell am i doing here - alone? i was in shorts yesterday getting burnt. This place sucks. After i had had my morning paddy and a very long moaning phone call to brighton, things started to look up. Apart from the fat canadian in [View Full Entry]

By Nick Pharazyn
November 19th 2009

T-minus cinco dias Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington

Hi all Wow this feels really good! Last time I was writing a blog was 3 years ago for my last trip. Here I am making the first entry of my second travel blog for my return to Ecuador and to explore greater south america - what an awesome feeling of anticipation and excitement this is! I worked for just under 2000 hours sorting mail (working full time for 13 months) to be able to go away so I feel like I've really earned it too.. But really, this feeling.. there's nothing like it! What exotic places and crazy adventures await [View Full Entry]

By Ibbus
November 10th 2009

Waitomo, Rotorua, National Park og Wellington Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington

Tongariro Crossing

Waitomo var stedet hvor vi boede paa camping, spiste fint og legede i grotter, og i Rotorua forsaetter vi med vulkaner, River rafting og WetZorb :) Dernaest til National park hvor vi var paa vores livs tur paa Tongariro Crossing og videre til fridage i Wellington. Loerdag tog vi tidligt om morgenen afsked med Paihia for at koere mod Waitomo. Koereturen tog ca. 8 timer hvor vi ind i mellem stoppede for at se vandfald, haengebroer ect. Omkring kl. 17.30 ankom vi til den camping plads vi skulle bo paa, og efter lodtraekning indkvarterede vi med de roomies, der havde trukket [View Full Entry]

By Laurene
October 13th 2009

Shoe shopping! Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington

Today was shoe shopping day. I went into a store called Farmers which is basically just a department store like the Bay back home. I ended up finding a really good shirt for job interviews that wasn’t too expensive so I bought it. I went into a couple of shoe stores but everything was so expensive! I finally found a store called #1 shoes which is just like payless shoes back home and found a pair of shoes that will work for job interviews. Yeah me! I got back to the hostel in time to listen to the Flames game and [View Full Entry]

By Leanne and Simon
October 12th 2009

Who owns those pants? Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington

Wellington

The 12-hour bus journey to Wellington was not the most comfortable experience so it would've been nice to check into a decent hostel and relax. Unfortunately we had booked Base hostel which is geared towards teenagers who want to party. Now this wouldn't have been a problem if said teenagers had the ability to clear up after themselves.... The 6-bed dorm we checked into stank of BO. I found the source of this stench stuffed down the side of my bunk, a t-shirt left behind by some smelly backpacker with an aversion to showers. I chucked it in the bin but [View Full Entry]

By Laurene
October 12th 2009

Shopping is so hard to do Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington

Fountain at sunset

Ate some breakfast and then headed out to find some dress pants for job interviews. I went into about 6 different stores. Clothes here are expensive! I found one pair of pants I liked but they were $205 NZD, yikes! I found another pair for $80 NZD and bought them since I was sick of shopping! Had to call Langham and talk to mom’s side of the family for Thanksgiving. Mom was visiting my grandma and my aunt. Was good to talk to everyone there. Then I called my dad at my Favorite cousins house haha. Was to hear from everyone. [View Full Entry]

By Laurene
October 11th 2009

Goodbye to Meike :( Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington

Me and Meike

We both packed up all of our stuff, had some breakfast and left the Base hostel. I hated the hostel so I decided to move to a different hostel. My new hostel was on the way to the ferry terminal where Meike was going. So we walked together and I dropped my bags at Nomads. I helped her carry her stuff over to the ferry terminal. I waited there with her until she boarded the ferry. It was sad to see her go. We had some good fun times together! Since it was Thanksgiving back home I had a few people [View Full Entry]

By Laurene
October 10th 2009

Cable cars and Irish pubs Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington

at the bottom

Meike and I looked out the window in the morning and saw some blue sky so we quickly got ready and went to the cable car. We paid $3 NZD and got a ride to the top. Pretty view from up there. It was kind of chilly and of course windy. The clouds were starting to roll in. We decided to walk around the Botanical garden on the downhill track to the city. The gardens are really nice but it’s just the start of the spring so there are flowers but there will be more later. As we were getting close [View Full Entry]

By Laurene
October 9th 2009

Rainy rainy day Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington

Today it was POURING rain out. We didn’t even want to go outside. Meike read while I job searched for most of the day. I emailed a hostel in Picton where you can work for your accommodations and they emailed me back right away to let me know that I can come anytime I want. I will go there on October 14th and get out of Windy Welly and off to the South Island!! We went out to the supermarket which is only a 5 minute walk and got soaked! So you guessed it, after dinner we watched another movie haha. [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Wellington