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Wellington
As Taupo was so busy we were quite glad to leave this town and head to the capital of New Zealand, Wellington. The Magic bus took us to the top of Mount Victoria where you get an excellent view of the city and its harbour. It was VERY windy at the top, which was appropriate as the cities nickname is Windy Wellington.
The city was very nice to walk around as it had lots of cafes and shops etc. When walking along the harbour there were SO many joggers and people on bikes it was unbelievable! There must have been literally 10 every minute! We felt quite lazy just walking... From here we walked to see the Parliamentary buildings (aka 'The Beehive') and also got the cable car up to see the Botanical Gardens.
We did a 'Lord of the Rings' (LOTR) tour in Wellington as quite a few bits of the films were filmed here (have a look at the photos). A few props were involved including elf ears and a sword which was very embarrassing!! The guide was very knowledgeable about the films and it was really interesting. We found out that in some cases several areas in New Zealand were used just for a 30 sec period in the film!
After 2 days in Wellington we headed to the South Island by the Inter-Islander Ferry. The journey was 3 hours and unfortunately the weather wasn't very good, otherwise the South island coast would have looked amazing. There were so many houses that could only be reached by boat, with thick forest around them. At the ferry terminal on the south island we met the Magic Bus for the journey to Nelson.
Nelson
We spent a few days in Nelson to have a look around the town and to visit Abel Tasman National Park. The jewelers that made the rings for 'LOTR' is based here so went and visited that, as well as having a look at the cathedral in the center of town and the Queens Gardens. In the afternoon we visited a museum called 'World of Wearable arts' (WOW) which was very impressive... the clothes were made out of everyday objects and included dresses, ball gowns etc. There was one dress that was made out of can ring pulls! Matt managed to loose his wallet on the way to WOW but AMAZINGLY we managed to meet the same bus coming the other way and get it back!! Lucky or what!?!
On the 2nd day we visited Abel Tasman National park. We got a water taxis to Torrent Bay and walked along the coastline down to Marahau (4 hours), where we got a bus back to our hostel. The beaches were like paradise...they had thick forest coming down to the sand and bright blue water. We found a beach to have lunch on that we had all to ourselves apart from 1 other guy... we had a swim in the sea and found some caves before swimming back. It was so idyllic!
From Nelson we had a 1 night stop over in Greymouth (nothing very interesting here apart from a brewery) before heading onto Franz Josef to see the glaciers on the 10th March 08...
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