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Published: December 11th 2012
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Wellington
Near the scene of the robbery! We hoped for a clear sunny morning for our three hour trip on the ferry to the North Island, but funnily enough it was thick cloud and rain for the duration. The weather didn't improve as we reached Wellington and we were welcomed by gusts of wind and diagonal rain, we now know why they call it 'Windy Welly'!
We parked up, and had a forty minute walk into town to avoid the pricey parking charges and made our way whilst being battered by the wind and rain to Te Papa, NZs national museum. It was a fantastic museum, we saw a great collection of Maori artefacts and we especially enjoyed the floor all about earthquakes and getting inside the house shaking as if one was taking place!
After a good few hours exploring Te Papa we wrapped up again in our sexy smelly cagoules and headed for Cuba street to grab a pizza before making the ten mile trip back to the car getting covered in sea spray from the roaring sea on the way!
We camped in a park just twenty minutes from the centre. The very laid back ranger didn't even charge
us so it meant we could splurge on eating out, a nice change from peanut butter!
On our second day in Welly we walked up and down Cuba street calling in at all the vintage boutiques, which was fun and depressing all at the same time! We entertained ourselves for a while trying on wigs, I think I might go red when we get back to blighty. We had lunch in Aunty Mena’s an amazing vegan Chinese and Malaysian cafe, we shared a tasty noodle and dumplings soup and spring rolls and then headed to the library to try and plan our route north.
After another night in our free camp we headed to Weta Cave, a mini museum of the company that brought The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit to life and took some snaps of Gollum!
We had a shower at the swimming baths before driving to the mount Victoria look out to see great views of welly. We parked up and walked into town via the harbour where by chance we saw The Bob Barker ship, one of The Sea Shepherds fleet who was on route to the Antarctic
waters to stop the illegal Japanese whale killers. We got a tour of the ship and watched an informative film about the oceans and how we are draining them off their life. Unfortunately I think they were preaching to the converted a little, but it was still very interesting and inspiring to be around volunteers who risk their lives to save whales. It was a real highlight for me having been a supporter for quite a while and I got a nice new hoodie to show my support and keep me warm in windy welly!
Because it was peeing down we had dinner at Aunty Menas and this time had an amazing laksa with veggie balls which was divine... Paul said he couldn't face eating animals after hearing the facts earlier in the day..... I'm sure he's almost veggie!
After walking back to the car in heavy rain we discovered we had been robbed. Our passports had been taken (really frustrating as we normally have them on us but I had clumsily pushed them in the glove box after being IDd for wine earlier in the day), as well as my makeup bag, wash bag, Pauls
wallet, North Face jackets and randomly a towel and wet wipes and other bits, but spared the iPods! The most upsetting thing though was they'd taken my travel file, which didn't have anything of value in, just all the little sentimental tokens I'd collected... Magnets and such and some jewellery I'd got in Laos for Luce.
After a sleepless night and a morning at the police station we headed to Island Bay to visit my friend Gemma, her husband Rich and 8 month old Pippa and we had a lovely day catching up. They very generously treated us to a tasty lunch at a cool joint frequented by The Hobbit cast and we spent the afternoon in their garden in the sun, bliss.
We extended our time in the Capitol to sort out passports at the consulate; plenty still to see so not really an inconvenience. We did a breezy walk to the red rocks, recommended by Gemma and Rich and were invited to spend a night at their amazingly lovely home. It was like a five star hotel, we had an on suite and the best night’s sleep since we'd been with Laura in ChCh.
After sorting our passports, minus all the stamps we'd accumulated, we were ready to leave Wellington. Even though we were unlucky with the break in we still really enjoyed our time there, it really is a cool little Capitol.
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