Wellington

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After sitting through 'Sunshine' on the ferry, which was apalling, we arrived in Wellington and found out why the call it the windy city, it was bloody windy. We checked into the central YHA, and signed up for the bar crawl that evening.

Also on the bar crawl were 2 lads from Queenstown, Nick and Simon, who had done the Nevis bungy with us. Wellington is great for a night out. We all agree that Wellington is by far our favorite city in New Zealand, it somehow feels more alive than any other city we've been to. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was a big rugby weekend, with the All Blacks playing France in the 2nd match at the Westpac stadium. We decided to get tickets, $100 each and stay until Sunday.

We visited the Te Papa museum, which was a mixture of science and kiwi culture, but is aimed at young children, and a bit pants for 20 something males. Later that afternoon we took a Lord of the Rings tour around some of the scenes shot in Wellington. As Dan and I weren't huge Lord of the Rings fans (I haven't even made it through the first film despite numerous attempts) we went for the $40 option. We were the only 3 on the tour, and our first stop was Hobbiton woods, where we reenacted some famous scenes, including the one where the hobbits hide from the dark rider underneath some tree roots ("get off the road!"). I took up the role of the dark rider and Will and Dan fought over the role of Frodo Baggins. We then headed to Peter Jackson's studios, which are really ordinary warehouses, apart from the large sound stage. Apparently he keeps things low key. The kiwis nickname Wellington Wellywood because Peter Jackson is from Wellington, and has set up his film companies in the heart of the city. Our last stop was the boat from King Kong, that has been bought by a businessman who plans to sink it and make it a diving attraction, which would be pretty cool. We then headed back to the hostel. Even for non Lord of the Rings fans, this tour was really good, made even better by the fact that the guide carried round a laptop and played each scene and then showed you where it was filmed. It's actually inspired me to give the trillogy another bash when I get home!

The next evening was the rugby match, and Wellington was heaving. The game itself was really one sided, with the Kiwis thrashing the French 61-10. The kiwis are awesome to watch, and made it look really easy. If they can do that to the French, 2nd in the world on rankings, I can't see how they could possibly come away from the world cup without the trophy. Saying that though, they have specialist rugby shops dotted around New Zealand called "Champions of the World" when at the moment they're not, We are. Cheeky buggers! The seats we had gave us a great view of the infamous Haka before the start of the match, which was quality to watch.

That night we decided to go out, but I've never seen anywhere so busy in all my life. All the bars, clubs and restaurants had massive queues, and after queueing for a while and not moving, we decided to head back to the hostel as we had another early start with the Kiwi Experience up to Taupo.

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