Wellington - Welcome to the North

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Well it turned out i had both, a brew and a pint! The cruise over was very nice, got a tad choppy in the open waters, but the boat was big enough to make it comfortable. The sound went for last orders, so i left the comfort of my recliner and headed for the huge bar, very nice indeed. Docked in Wellington, and headed for the hostel.

It was pretty late by the time i got there, so went for a quick mooch, and settled in to the hostel bar to claim my free meal. Bit crap, but free! Had a pint there, and went on a mini pub crawl, which was decidedly poor as most of the boozers were empty. Still, glad it wasn't a big night as i only had the next day to see everything.

Up early and a good brekkars and i started off going round the shopping area, which was really cool as its mostly independant shops, so was good to wander around.

Then onto the Parliament, which is really ugly! Went in, through all security checks, but i missed the tour by 5 mins, so was told to go back an hour later.....never bothered, don't reckon it would've been much cop!

After that i hopped on the cable car and headed up & up to the Botanical Gardens, and the views of the city. Quick look round, then chose to walk back down and see the harbour, all very nice. Went back for a quick bite to eat, then saved the best till last, Te Papa Museum. I'm not really one for walking around museums too much, but this was huge, and more importantly..interactive. I was basically a child for a couple of hours. Earthquake simulators, huge light up floor maps, and the video wall. Hard to explain this one, but you select a load of images on the touch screen monitor, random ones, and you can also have your pic taken, then you press a button, and they are uploaded to the HUGE wall. Then you get a laser pointer thing, click the symbol on the wall corresponding to your little monitor, and you images pop in. Then you can select them, make them huge, and use the laser pointer to throw them around this wall. Keeping up? Anyway, might not sound good, but it is, altho the picture that was taken of me is pretty scary! And it was all free, great place!

Bit of a quiet night around the hostel lounge as we had to be up really early for the bus to Napier....

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Photos

World Record High Jump!!
Very high

The Bee Hive
Parliament