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Published: August 9th 2007
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We arrived in New Zealand's capital city for our one night's stay mid-afternoon, finding our lodgings for the night of Rowena's. I suppose at $50 for a double a night we can't complain, but it wasn't the nicest place we'd stayed - we wouldn't recommend it. The kitchen felt so grotty, we headed out for a late lunch quickly finding a good choice of bars, cafes and restaurants off Courtenay Place.
Precariously beautiful New Zealand Until now, we'd been lucky with the weather, but it was cold, wet and miserable in Wellington so we headed straight for the Te Papa Museum. We'd heard very positive things about this museum and weren't disappointed - it's superb. It's very interactive, modern and above all, interesting. It is also huge - you could easily spend a full day in there and not get round it all. After discovering the Lord of the Rings exibition had left for Germany some 3 months prior, we headed off to understand more about New Zealand's volcanic and earthquake shaped/prone geography. This was excellent, although didn't exactly put us at ease : Wellington typically experiences an earthquake on a weekly basis, although of course these are usually relatively
minor. In fact, we soon learnt that New Zealand is as prone to huge earthquakes (and other natural disasters) as San Fransisco and Japan, with the fault between two tectonic plates running straight through New Zealand. The acounts on earthquakes include interviews with survivors and a simulator. We then took in records of the volcanoes erupting, including Mt. Raupehu which we'd parked at the foot of for the Tongariro Crossing (which, incidentally, had a little rumble about the time we were in Wellington). As if this wasn't enough, we then moved onto the extreme weather section and watched footage of the Wellington to Picton transport ferry capsizing in a heavy storm : there was a storm due the next day when we were booked onto this very ferry to South Island. Hmmm, it was time to move onto another exibition.
Sight seeing The next day we were due to catch the 2:00pm ferry, which gave us enough time to check out a few other sights as the rain poured down and the wind did it's best to reach the forecasted 120km gales. I left Sally sheltering in the Te Papa for a second session, and headed along the very
upmarket Lambton Quay to New Zealand's seat of power, the Beehive. I wanted to see this building for myself, which apparently was architecturally quite controversial at the time it was built - looked fine to me, reminding me a little of Ken Livingstone's seat of power in London (which I've actually had a tour round, by the way!).
Then I had the small challenge of finding the slightly tucked away Cable Car entrance (hidden in a small shopping centre). This takes you up to the Botanic Gardens, which occupy a great vantage point overlooking Wellington harbour. The views were good, but would have been great on a nicer day! A bit Botanic Gardens overdosed from Oz, I used them as little more than a lookout over the city, so didn't hang around - but they did look like they deserved more of my time. The weather was deteriorating by the minute. For this reason I feel I should reserve judgement on Wellington - we weren't seeing it at it's best and we were only here for one night. Sally wasn't a fan. For me, the way the city is nestled into a hilly landscape shaped by past earthquake and
historic volcanic activity with it's focus around it's harbour and it's housing style, made it superficially interesting. We weren't here for long enough to really get to know the place. I'm sure the views of it's harbour on a nice day would be a great sight.
Ferry from Wellington to Picton Before leaving the UK, Sally had done the sums. It was cheaper for us to hire the car for the whole duration, taking it with us on the ferry, rather than going as foot passengers and hiring another car on South Island. I wasn't going to argue with that.
As we queued for ages to get on the ferry, the storm set in, with the rain lashing down and gales shaking the car from side to side. We'd already been advised the ferry was running half an hour late. Mentally, the ferry sick bag was already on stand-by. Once we were in the Cook Strait we would surely feel the full force of the Tasman Sea? I replayed images from Te Papa of the capsized ferry as we waited. Today however, we were in luck. The mini-storm passed over almost as quickly as it had arrived. By the time we were in the Cook Strait we could even see some blue sky! With eager anticipation of the amazing scenery we expected to see in South Island, we were soon in the calmer waters of Malborough Sound, without drama.
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