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After my second trip to Kaikoura we travelled up to the tip of South Island for the second time to Picton where I had to board the ferry for the North Island and sadly wave goodbye to to South :( Well in reality I got on the ferry found a free set, plugged my Ipod in and promptly fell asleep! So much for waving from the deck and getting some good photos of the Sounds! Never mind eh - it made the three hour journey go a lot quicker! Arrived in Wellington at about 4.30pm and got a lift with a North Island Stray driver to the City Center YHA where I had booked in for 3 nights. It was a lovely Hostel with good facilities and right slap bang in the middle of things. After checking in and grabbing a late lunch/early dinner I headed out to the Museum ' Te Papa'. Luckily for me it was open late every Thursday till 9pm and it was Thursday whcih meant I got to fit it in straight away! Its a really good museum - very big and Im sure I missed lots out but had some really cool stuff in it. The shakey house was impressive - you go in thinking its telling you about a big earthquake that happened here and it starts simulating an earthquake and shaking all over the place! I also went to the extra exhibit which was all about the Egyptians and had a real Mummy in it!
Went to the supermarket afterwards and had dinner late before crashing out for my first night in North Island :) Woke up to a pretty grey day on Friday and headed out to see some sights. I got the bus over to the railway station which cost $1 (about 35p!) as from there I had a half hour walk back to the hostel via some of the sights. First I went to Old St Pauls which is an old cathedral entirely made out of native wood. Its so pretty that it high in demand for weddings and there was one just about to start so I couldn't go in! Instead I walked back through the CBD to the Cable car which runs up the side of the hill to the Botanical Gardens. Had a good walk through them - nice duck pond and rose garden!! and very good views over the city too. Then I went to the Observatory and checked out a show on all the consellations and the night sky which was good, after that I caught the cable car back down the hill and went back to do all my washing!!! As i got back my friend Ian from the Stray bus South Island was checking in so we arranged to meet up for some more sightseeing the following day.
Got up early (for a backpacker!) at about 8am!! Headed back out to Old St Pals with Ia and would you believe it another Wedding was going on!! So we headed out to the houses of parliament for the tour there (anything thats free - just in case your wondering how interested I am in the New Zealand parliament!) Was actually pretty good as it taught me how things work a bit better and I don't feel quite so uneducated! We then went back to Old St Pauls and got to go inside - it was lovely (worth the effort for those of you also wondering how interested I am in Churches and Cathedrals!) although the wedding party were still in there! The Usher had told us to come in and that it didn't matter and then we were even offered the food that was going around!! Rude to say no we were sure so we had some pastry things and took a few photos! By this time it was lunchtime so we went to a mexican in the food court and did a bit of camera shopping in town. Ian hadn't done the Cable car to the gardens or the museum so he went off to do that late afternoon and I went to the cinema to see 'The Prestige' which was very good. I didn't get the twist in the end - do i ever?!! But well worth a watch guys - made by the same guy who did Memento (Think i was hard work to watch that one with too wasn't I Chris?!) Can't help it if things take too much concentration! Got back to the Hostel just after 6pm and ate dinner and chilled out before managing to get Midsomer Murders on in the TV lounge! What a result! HAHAHA Can't help wanting to see it if it's on out here! Plus I think all theDutch and Spanish lads secretly enjoyed it and weren't too upset that they were missing 'gone in 60 seconds'!! Well that one was on video in the lounge too :)
So this morning we got the bus at 7am (shock horror!) to come up here to Taupo. we arrived at 1pm so it was a fair old drive up and most of us spent it asleep. Im only here till tomorow afternoon because I get the bus the rest of the way to Auckland then as Matt and Aaron fly into Auckland the day after tomorow!!! Im very excited about seeing them and have just hired us a car and booked out first two nights accommodation. There's a big power Boat competition here today (Taupo is on the edge of the biggest Lake in New Zealand) so I'm going to go and check that out in a bit. Its a lovely day and Taupo is very pretty so I think I'll have a nice 24hours here. I'll be coming back with Matt and Aaron (we're going to do our skydives here in about a week!) so its nice to check the place out first. Anyhows, am off into the sunshine now, xxxx
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