Wellington

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Geo: -41.2865, 174.776

Part Two: Tongariro to Wellington. We woke up to pouring rain and gusty
northerlies (saw that in the newspaper and I love that description!).
Luckily it was down to a drizzle when we had to load up the car. The
drive to Wellington was lots of up and down hill, tons of curves and,
since it was raining most of the time, I was going pretty slow. The
good thing is that New Zealand drivers are pretty polite and I never
felt too pressured to go faster. There are lots of places to pull over
and let others pass and we also stopped at a few scenic waysides. One
was a nice waterfall and others were just nice lookouts over valleys.
Eventually we descended out of the hills and the road became a little
straighter. The rain was around most of the day and varied from a light
mist to a full on downpour. Luckily, the downpours were after we were
out of the winding mountain roads. About an hour outside of Wellington,
we came around a curve and there on the right was the Tasman Sea! The
waves were huge and the road went right along the coast. I was hoping
for a place to pull over, but they were on the other side of the road so
we weren't able to get any photos. It was such a sight when we rounded
that corner! You then head back inland and come into Wellington, which
is in what looks like a bay. Our hotel is up on a hill and our room
faces a garden area. After we checked in, we put on our rain gear and
headed down the hill into the city. Went to the Te Papa Museum, which
is a free museum with lots of exhibits about New Zealand. There was a
special exhibit with an actual colossal squid! It was pretty gross.
Then we headed out to find the way to the Mt. Victoria lookout. I guess
this is also featured in LOTR. Luckily for us, it required a very
steep uphill walk. The walk was labeled easy and if that was easy, I
would hate to see the moderate kind! We only went halfway because it
was just too far and I could not go up anymore. So we walked back down,
back to the center of town, got McDonalds and walked back to the
hotel. I am glad we are taking a 3 hour ferry ride tomorrow as my feet
cannot take much more walking! Hope to post again in a few days!

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