Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
The coach headed up to a port on the north tip of the South Island. Here a ferry would arrive - a bunch of us would get on to go to the North Island, and another bunch would get off to join the coach on its way down the west coast. As I waited in the ferry terminal I watched the bus pull off, and who was waving at me out of it's window but Mark the metrosexual scouser from Brisbane? Backpacking is a small world. It was a three hour crossing on an old Portsmouth-Calais ferry - god knows what they use all the cabins for on such trips. The wind on deck was phenomenal. You had to have a good 35 degree lean into the wind to avoid getting blown over.
I arrived in Wellington, the national capital, with new friends Adrian and Rachel. (I realise I rarely use names for people on this, but I figure they'd largely be meaningless to you anyway and it saves time for me not having to write who was doing what etc.). I'd spent most of my time on the South Island, and so I only had one full day to spend in town. First stop was 'Te Papa' (Maori for 'Our Place') which is the NZ national museum. Very good, if ridiculously big. I like musuems but there is only so much of them I can take in a day, and so I cut a good portion of it out. Then came the Beehive, the home of NZ's parliament, and the Old St. Paul's Cathedral. This little church has rightly been downgraded from cathedral status. A charming place, it is however no bigger than a small bungalow, and when compared with it's London namesake it doesn't come off to well. I spent the rest of the afternoon randomingly wandering, which is the best way to discover a city. That evening Adrian and I went to see Iron Man, which I though was pretty damn good, especially considering all the media speculation about how bad it would be. Unfortunately two Danish girls in my dorm discovered that night that they had had a load of stuff stolen. The most unfortunate aspect about it was that I had been asleep and kept getting rudely awoken by their comings and goings, which I was not amused with. I heard the thief got caught in the end - which isn't surprising when you're a checked in guest who paid with a credit card. Moron.
Another day, another bus ride, more pie to be eaten. This time we were off to Taupo, another charming little town based on the edge of a massive lake. Here to pull was skydiving, throwing yourself out of a perfectly good plane at 15,000 feet! What fun. There isn't much to say about my time here, except that I had my 200th pack of noodles since leaving home.
- comments