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We arrived in Wellington in the evening and headed to Base Backpackers which is the hostels where all the Kiwi Bus people stay. It is cheaper for us to park in their car park and use all the hostel facilities, than it is to get a pitch at a campsite. Also it means we can socialise with other travellers. However there was no room that night at Base, so they suggested another hostel just around the corner where we could do the same thing there. We cooked dinner and chilled out there for the night.
The next morning we got up, made breakfast and then headed back to Base to check in there - as they said they would have room then. After sorting all of that out, we left the campervan and had a walk into town.
Our first stop was Te Papa Museum which was free and is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the country. It was quite big and tells you all about the history of New Zealand. It did get a bit boring after a while, as there was a lot of stuff to read. It told you all about the different animals in NZ, as well as extinct ones now, dinosaur bones which have been found, volcanoes, glaciers, planets, rocks, earthquakes etc! Wellington is actually located on a major earthquake fault line, so there is a lot of seismic action there. In guide books it says not to be shocked if you do feel a shake whilst there, but we didn't…. even though we kind of wanted to!! One of the most interesting things in the museum was the colossal squid they have. It is now dead but was caught at sea, preserved, and is the only one in the world on display. It was about 4 metres long... and the eyes are the size of footballs!.... pretty weird, and you wouldn't want to see one whilst swimming!
We spent the rest of the day looking around the town. Lloyd got his haircut, Ben enquired about getting a traditional Māori tattoo, and then we did a bit of shopping getting some more warm clothes ready for the South Island. The hostel booked the ferry for us online, which cost $100 each (£50). That night we chilled in the hostel, cooked dinner, then watched a film in the TV room they have.
Even though Wellington is the capital city of NZ there isn't much to do, and it is a small city. So today we took a small drive out of the city to go mountain biking. We eventually found the rental place and they gave us a map and a bike each. It was a pretty cold day… but as we got going it soon warmed is up!
It was a proper mountain bike course we went on, which was really steep and muddy, winding all the way up the mountain. Some bits were really tight and you had to duck and dodge trees and bushes. It was a really good workout and when we got to the top they had a 'skills area'. This part had various jumps, a wooden raised track to bike around and stay on, and a see-saw to go over. After going on this for a bit, Tim was tired so headed back, whilst Lloyd and Ben carried on a bit more!
When Lloyd got to the top of the mountain his tyre burst ( he doesn't have much luck with bicycles! ) - so had to cycle all the way down with a flat back tyre, but it seemed to work ok! We all agreed it was much more fun biking back down, as it started to chuck it down with rain, so we got really wet and muddy, but was fun dodging in and out of trees and skidding round the corners! We gave the bikes back, then headed back to the hostel to get warm, dry and clean!
That night we were planning on going out as it was student night in Wellington, and had been told it was best to go out then ( Wednesday ). We had a few drinks whilst making and eating dinner, then headed down to the Basement Bar which was in the basement of Base…hence the name!! It was pretty dead so we played a bit of table football and pool hoping it would pick up a bit. More and more people from the hostel came in, including a Swiss guy we have bumped into a few times called Reemo! He was with two English girls, and after a few drinks we all headed to some other bars. We had the best night so far in NZ, and all ended up very drunk, not looking forward to the ferry journey tomorrow!
Today, we woke up all a bit worse for wear and got showered, had breakfast etc…. then headed to the port to get the ferry to the south island! The ferry was nice, and had a TV room which played a couple films over the 3.5 hour journey. However the weather was bad, and the sea was very choppy throwing the boat all over the place! It was very hard to walk around and things were falling off the shelves in the restaurant - this was not ideal with a hangover! Tim ended up being sick in the toilet, and Lloyd and Ben were close, but after sucking on some ice a lady bought round, felt ok! We arrived in Picton, South Island…. Safe and sound!!
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