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Published: March 13th 2009
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Like i said before in my last blog it was another early start, in fact the earliest yet (At least in Nz) it took just over 5 hours to get to Picton which is at the top of the south island and is where you catch the Inter Islander ferry to get to the north island. The weather forecast wasn't very good and unlike Akaroa there weren't any miracles so it was really rough and took an hour more then it should due to the bad weather.
I've discovered before (In Cairns when sailing to the Great Barrier Reef) that I'm not particularly good on boats and the weather made it worse so i spent half the journey in the toilet throwing up, its a shame it was bad because id heard on a nice day it's a really good journey and sometimes you can even see dolphins swimming alongside the boat. So about 12 hours after leaving Chris's house i finally made it to my hostel in Wellington, the hostel was huge and had 6 floors of rooms, my room was a 4 bed dorm and had its own en suite which i hadn't seen in YHA's before.
Inter Islander
If you get a chance google map Picton-The blue dotted line is the route the ferry takes to get to Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand and is the 2nd largest city as far as population goes. I was still feeling ill after the ferry so i had a lie down and later on went out for some food before having an early night to try and sleep the sea sickness off, the following morning i woke up feeling much better and planned what i was going to do for the day. I started by walking around Cuba st which is the "Alternative" area in Wellington, after window shopping for an hour or so i headed to the Te Papa Museum which is solely about the history of New Zealand and its people. I had planned to spend an hour or two in the museum but without realising i ended up spending 6 and a half hours in there and didn't leave until half 5! The museum was fantastic and it has to be my favourite museum i've seen whilst i've been away and as I'm sure your aware by now i've been to/seen quite a few by now, the exhibits were spectacular and the staff were really friendly and full of information.
There were 6 floors
Bucket Fountain
A fountain in Cuba St and on each one there were loads of exhibits mapping New Zealand's history, wildlife and art my favourite was the Maori exhibits especially the Marae (Pronounced Ma-Rye) which was the Maori meeting house and they had a traditional Marae that was donated to the museum by one of the Maori tribes and it was beautifully decorated with carved Tiki inside, they also had a contemporary Marae that was decorated with various sculptures depicting the bi cultural identity of Nz including some showing occupations and origins of newcomers over the last two hundred years. Because i spent so long in the museum i didn't really have time to see anything else so i went back to the hostel and had some dinner before packing my stuff up ready for the coach trip to Taupo.
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