New Zealand - North Island

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Hi everyone, we are now on the North Island, Wellington. This morning after my lonnnnng sleep !! we got up, I packed my suitcase, having big problems with that !! The cheeseboard was in the way !! despite this, my suitcase seemed to have shrunk !! I said to Stu, we seemed to have accumulated a lot of stuff, what have we brought, well if he didn't bring up the cheeseboard once, he repeated himself about 20 times !! No doubt this will be a bone of contention !! Infact he even phoned the airlines to find out if we could book in another piece of lugguage but they wanted very very silly money. Anyhow, not a problem, things work out one way or another !! We drove to Picton to pick up the boat to take us over to the North island and were able to board onto the earlier one. We didn't have the car as the plan was we would hand it back so we didn't have to pay to take it over and then pick up another rental in a couple of days time, that way we wouldn't have parking costs in Wellington. This is all to do with our budget !!!! The crossing was rough, we were told that it would be, due to the backlash, yes you've guessed it 'Cyclone Pam', there were a lot of people on the boat who were suffering, luckily we were fine. Anyhow who should we bump into but Paula and Colin the couple from Glasgow, they to had an early night last night and have decided to take a break from wine for a while ! Whilst we sailed into the Cook Strait through the Tory Channel the scenery was breathtaking, it is supposed to be one of the most beautiful ferry journeys in the world and it certainly was. It was very calm at this point with stunning mountains either side, single little houses dotted in places, only able to reach them by boats. It reminded me of Milford Sound, which we saw when we were in Queenstown, but without the waterfalls. However, I was outside at the front of the boat talking to Colin when the boat went down below a wave, back up and whooooosh the water went all over us. It was very funny because then we couldn't find our legs to walk, a lady fell over, we helped pick her up and the Captain came out and told us all to get in, from then onwards the sea was very rough. It took 3 hours to cross, they gave us free tea and coffee towards the end of the journey, how nice is that. So when we landed in Wellington we got a shuttle bus to our hotel, cheap as chips, booked into this old building above a pub. Mmmmmmm, read a sign at reception warning us it is very noisy Friday and Saturday nights up to 03.00 am Sunday and they are not kidding. Haven't attempted sleeping yet !!

Anyway dumped our luggage off and went exploring, Wellington seems a very nice place, good vibe to it, nice shops, need to keep away from those !! We walked to Cuba Street which was very interesting, hip and bustling, lots of bars and cafes and people playing instruments in the street, lots of art work on the buildings and a mixture of people, apparently life starts at 10.00 pm, well seemed to us life was starting earlier than that !! It is an area where you could sit and people watch, there were quite a few character's lurking around ! We had dinner down there, very cheap and then walked back to noisy hotel. Made our plan for tomorrow, so up early as we have a lot to see ! Goodnight.

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