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Published: August 8th 2007
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Today we left Nelson. Before we left the hostel were kind enough to give Liz a nights money back due to the horrendous bites she got from her bed- I'm still sure they were bed bugs as I found a dead one under my pillow when I arrived and looked it up on line plus her bites resemble the bites from bed bugs.
Any way, we arrived in Picton with plenty of time to spare before getting the ferry so I went to the Aquarium, which was absolutely crap and then just chilled out on the grass with an ice cream around the marina. It was a gorgeous hot day and Picton is a perfect little town to spend such a day in.
Liz and I then boarded the ferry- Sarah and Mickey were coming later and we settled in for the journey across to North Island. I was actually quite sentimental about saying good bye to the South Island as I'd had such an amazing time there. However amongst the huge clan of bikers that were aboard our ship and the hype of the Wellington Sevens, my melancholy was soon forgotten. With a couple of
beers we sat at the bar and watched the rugby, watching England win their first round and New Zealand too. Eventually we arrived in Wellington and got the free shuttle to town, passing the rugby stadium as we went, where all the action was happening.
The atmosphere in Wellington was like nothing I've ever come across. Half of the shops were shut and half of Wellington was dressed up in crazy fancy dress costumes. It was a totally surreal experience passing random characters in the streets, in shops. And in cafés; all dressed up in some extremely funny costumes.
When in town we thought we'd make the most of the afternoon and headed to the famous cable car (which is actually a tram). At the top we found the botanical gardens and the Observatory. Having tried out the human sundial (see pics) we decided to head in doors and attend one of the planetarium's presentations. Here we were ushered into a pitch black room and were told our eyes would adjust soon, we couldn't see the man speaking but he had quite a monotone voice. Apart from us there were meant to be some other people
in there
but I couldn't here any evidence of any human life apart from the mans voice and for some reason a combination of all these strange factors lead to me having to stifle some crippling giggles, which took a great deal of self control.
Once out and having learned how to locate the southern star- my new party trick, we headed back down on the cable car/ tram and walked back to the ferry port passing an array of lycra clad 80's gymnasts, a smurf, several guys in thongs and some costumes I was clueless about. We also walked past the ruby stadium where we were inches away form the Papa New Guinea rugby team who had just finished playing- and we saw them play when we were on the boat over, very exciting.
Once back at the ferry terminal we waited for Sarah and Mickey and then Barbara, a lady we had met in Peru who offered to put us up for a couple of nights while we were in Wellington- just as well as we would never have got accommodation with the 7's on.
The next day- having had an excellent
nights sleep in a non hostel bed and enjoyed a non hostel breakfast we headed out with Barbara. We went first to a look-out where you could take in most of surrounding Wellington and then we headed to a pretty church. After this, Barbara left us and Liz and I headed to the library for a collection on collectables that was actually a bit disappointing.- we were sure we could have put on a much better exhibition, my lighter and rubber and Liz's match box collection would have been more interesting than half the stuff there. We then walked to the water-front amongst a tidal wave of dressed up people, I certainly felt like the odd one out. We ended up sitting in a bar for some lunch amongst some crazy characters including: many men in thongs (and I'm not talking flip flops!!) trying to be either Borat, the naked chef or their own design including a swim team and tennis team (see picture). Apart for the bottom baring theme there was also, ali G, nurses, cowboys, kinky police, Flintstones, smurfs, Tui references, prisoners and much, much more. I seriously and totally admire Kiwi's for this as I don't reckon
you'd even get a quarter of Brits dressing up like this.
Unfortunately and unluckily all of my exhibitions and galleries were closed for refurb so I wandered round Wellington centre, After catching up with Liz we went to the famous (and most importantly open) Te Papa museum. This was lots of fun, very interactive and informative, lots on Maori culture there and totally worth a good look if you come to Wellington. Unfortunately NZ lost the 7's but that night after dinner we headed out anyway onto the streets with the dressed up masses and had a very funny evening.
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