No time to see New Zealand's capital city

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Day 163: Tuesday 9th December - In a rush to see the capital

By the time we arrive in Wellington, New Zealand's capital city at the base of the North Island its 7.30pm and the one thing I really wanted to do whilst I was in the city - visit Te Papa museum, supposedly New Zealand's finest museum - is closed. This is really annoying as I can't afford to get off the bus with no bus for another 2 days. Its either stay an extra 2 days in Wellington or stick with my original plan and hop off the bus and spend two days in Abel Tasman National Park. I've seen pictures of Abel Tasman and New Zealand is all about its scenery rather than its cities so its no hard decision, Abel Tasman it is. I am however determined to see more than the inside of my hostel in our 12 hour stay in Wellington so I dump my bags and set off for a whistle stop tour of the city's highlights (excluding the Te Papa museum) in the remaining hour and a half of daylight. First I head along to the parliament area before taking a cable car up to the botanical gardens for a view across the city. Wellington is a small capital no more than 400,000 people live here and the buildings climb up the steep hillside above the harbour. The capital was moved here in the mid 19th century from Auckland for a more central location when the gold mines were taking off in the South Island. Its a pretty city and on my walk back it looks like the nightlife is worth exploring. It is not going to be tonight however as I'm having a night off as I need to do my laundry instead! On arrival back at the hostel I find out that I'm not booked on to the interislander ferry tomorrow morning as neither our bus driver Dallas or the hostel staff on checking in had informed us we had to do this by 8:30pm...not the end of the world but thanks for the information guys!

Day 164: Wednesday 10th December - Crossing over to the South Island

Its another early start as we need to catch the 8:30am ferry to the South Island. I manage to get a ticket no problem, and then its a monotonous 3 hour journey across the Cook Straight to Picton at the tip of the South Island. Here we pick up another bus and then we work our way through the Malborough wine region and west towards Nelson.

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