Thankfully we didn't have to get up at a ridiculous hour this morning as our bus didn't leave until 9am. Olly, who is the class clown, was late as usual. Looks like he slept in what he's wearing and just rolled out of bed. When he got on, I asked him if he was up last night singing and laughing hysterically. He started laughing and said I don't remember much because it was vodka time, but yes it was him. Then he started singing some Beetles for us...crazy guy!
We're on a different bus and our new driver is called Caj, as in Casual. Hopefully he's not too laid back.

We made an early stop at a place called Tahaipe, to grab food and to take part in some Gum Boot Throwing. Apparently, one of the top "sports" in New Zealand!

It was quite a long drive to Wellington, and we didn't arrive in until about 4pm. And as soon as we pulled up, it started absolutely throwing it down. Typical. We had to walk down to our hostel and got soaked. Then when we got to the YHA, we basically ended up being put in a 6-bed dorm even though we'd booked a 4-bed. Somebody had made a mistake and there were no 4-beds left. We've found the less people there are, the more likely we are to get a good nights sleep. And to top it off, we were talking to one of the guys in our room who told us that another guy in there snores REALLY loud. Great stuff!!
We're only staying here one night anyway, then going around the South Island, then we come back to Wellington and will spend a few nights here before going back to Auckland.

First job was to find a barbers for my ridiculously long hair. We found one but it was $25 (£12.50) just to have an all over head shave. Another place was closed and it was only 4.30pm. Actually, there were loads of shops closed. It's worse than Sunday hours for everything in NZ.

We decided to have a cheap Domino's Pizza for tea - only $7.90 (£4) for a Hawaiian. When we got it, it wasn't very big though so we finished the veg chilli from last night as well.

We also needed to find a clothes shop to get some pumps as I only have flip-flops and a pair of awful "trainers" that I've been using for walking, so they are filthy and stink. I asked reception where the nearest shops are, but she said they all close at 5pm. I couldn't believe it and just said "this is the capital city, Wellington, isn't it?". That's one weird thing about NZ, is how early things close. So that was that.

As we couldn't find a barbers, we decided to just cut my hair with the broken clippers of mine anyway. These are the ones where one of the prongs on the clip has broken off. So there's a danger of having lines in my hair. Sure enough, I've ended up with a big flipping line across the left side of my head, and Therese reckons there's a star shape at the back of my head. Made a right mess, but Therese managed to use the scissors to blend it in a bit more. Still looks a mess though. I'm paying for a hair cut next time!

It had stopped raining, so we went out with a group of people from the bus at around 9pm. We started in Basement (the Base bar) and the drinks were really cheap - only $4 (£2) a pint or glass of wine. We stayed there for a quite a while with it being so cheap, then moved on to a place called Sandwiches. Our bus driver recommended it because it was drum and bass night. Absolutely awful music. I usually say I like pretty much all music when anybody asks me, but now I'll say anything but that stuff.

So me and Therese left to a find an Irish bar with a live band. We couldn't believe how busy it was in all the bars and how many there were. We found an Irish bar anyway...there's at least one in every city in the world!! Pretty good band on as well, and it was pretty busy, especially where we were busting our moves and rocking out on the dance floor. Only had one drink though as it cost $8 (£4) a pint! Still stayed in there a while - 2am by the time we got back. And we've to be up in 4 hours.....