Wellington truly deserves its big city hit status. I think with all the travellers filing through the capital for the north - south island crossing, it keeps the place constantly buzzing. Sat right on the southern tip of the north island, it seems isolated at first. But don't let the map deceive you.

The drive down was atrocious. We attempted just short of a 400km drive in one afternoon. Pretty hardcore at the best of times, but considering I was deteriorating by the hour, it soon turned into a nightmare. Managed maybe three hours driving at the most before I had to leave tom at the helm. We were sat in a traffic jam about 2 hours from Welly and I can honestly say I have never felt so poorly in all my living memory. Again we arrived by nightfall in search of one of the top 10 holiday homes we were now accustomed to but by this point all I wanted to do was sleep. The next morning I had no other choice but to head for the hospital and within half an hour, whilst tom went in search of his McBreakfast, I was put on a bed and admitted. I was genuinely bricking myself by this point, blood test after blood test before finally being put on a drip. The nurse seemed to take an interest into my kidneys and the fact that I'd just accomplished forty plus days of constant drinking...i didn't dare put out for the old high five. I did however manage to witness some serious brain surgery in the cubicle next door. Blood filled the floor and I have to say, the suction sound in an attempt to clean it all up - was not one I want to hear again in a hurry. Anyway, a bag of sugary stuff later - they decided to let me out. Nobody any wiser as to what had just floored me for the past 5 days, whether it was concussion, some sort of flu or just the fact I had destroyed my vital organs. We hadn't even made the exit door of the hospital before tom pipes up; "so are we going out tonight then?" Epic.

It's safe to say I must have been severely dehydrated. The following day I was feeling much perkier, so we set about exploring. It really is a smart, bustling coastal metropolis. The only downfall being we were staying too far out of the city. We tried to book into a hostel but everywhere was either fully booked, or had no parking. We took the rickety old cable car from Lambert Quay up to the Botanical Gardens. Hardly exhilarating but still, it's definitely worth a look from the top of the hill. You get to see across the whole city, plus it's a great way to get your bearings so worth while doing it first. We found a cork tree though while we ambled about up there. It actually was cork...
A stroll across the city brought us to Te Papa. Sounds exotic doesn't it. A lappy or something!? Well it wasn't, it was NZ national museum. Not being the biggest fan of museums - it was in fact quite interesting learning about the geology of the two islands and an insight into all the volcanoes that inhabit the place...who am I kidding, I just sat in the earthquake simulator for the most part. But a great free attraction. More sightseeing and soaking up of Wellys ambience followed. Ideally, we could have done with the girls being a little speedier. Their ferry crossing was booked for a few days after ours. It would have been the perfect spot to have one of our lary nights out. Plus, we could have parked at their hostel.

So it was our final point of call in the north before we took our little camper across the high seas. It was getting colder for sure; obviously not helped by leaving the front seat window down at night...idiots.