Needing Wellies in Wellington

  Wellington, New Zealand
Friday, February 29, 2008

Arriving in Wellington we stayed at the nearest campsite to the city which was basically just a car park with the usual facilities. Donning our gladrags we caught the bus from across the road into the city to go and catch the Super 14's game Hurricanes vs. Chiefs at the Westpac stadium.
 
The stadium was fairly impressive, holding 35,000 people. Apparently there had been some controversy with it as the mayor of the town had approved it to be built without having either the funding or the permission from government to do so. Either way it was only about half full when we sat down with our pies, beers and wine to watch the game. We had managed to sit down next to some Welsh lads who spent the whole of the game drinking as much as they possibly could and shouting obscenities at the below average cheerleaders on the pitch. It was all fairly amusing for us, but the Kiwi girl next to me seemed a little worried about the whole thing, I comforted her in letting her know this was usual behaviour for any British citizen at a sporting event, and I had seen a lot worse, but it didn't seem to help. Another thing we noticed was the lack of chanting at the game, it all seemed fairly civilized with a couple of shouts of "Go the Canes" or "Go the Chiefs", there was certainly no MR's songs  or the like, which was a shame really. The game itself was okay and I had a bit of texting camaraderie with Mark over the phone with him being a Chiefs fan and the Hurricanes winning 39-19 at the final whistle.
 
After the game we went for a few more beers at a pub around the corner, Maud was up for a big night as she had been driving so often, but when I suggested going to a club she replied "I think we're too old for that type of thing now, we might get some funny looks", so we stayed until last orders and got the bus back to the campsite.
 
The next morning our plan was to go to Te Papa, the museum of New Zealand, otherwise know as "Our Place" and then onto the cable car to get an ariel view of the city.  
We again got the bus back into the city centre and headed straight for Te Papa. We wandered around the outside if the building which was nice enough, but we were unsure how they had spent $317 million on it.  Once inside noticed that most of the floors were marble and it was a pretty massive place with good exhibits inside. We did most of the exhibits, including an Earthquake zone, natural history, Maori collections, a Marae (Maori meeting house) and some art work, plus watching some short films which were all pretty good.  
As we walked out of the door though the heavens opened and it appeared that the cable car was not going to happen (there wasn't going to be much to see), so we wandered around the shops for a while deciding on a plan of action. It seemed pointless to go back to the campsite for a change of clothes and then come back in again for dinner, so we decided to sit in an Irish pub for the remainder of the afternoon until going for a curry in the evening. The rain wasn't letting off and at one point Helen had just had enough of running from shop awning to awning so donned the only waterproof thing we had which was one of those ponchos that you see American tourists walking around in (we got it free at Te Paui).  Not very fashionable but I don't think she cared at that point. After a reasonable curry with some nice hot chillies, we got the last bus home, a bit of a wasted day but what can you do if the weather isn't on your side ?
 
The next day we got up and readied the van for the ferry crossing to Picton at 2pm that afternoon. Having a fair bit of time left on our hands we drove up to Kelburn (at the top of the cable car) to have brunch. This was a really nice village with some funky cafes and great views down to the city. After getting brunch we headed back down to get some fuel and then check in to the ferry terminal at about 12:30.
 
Being so early turned out to be a blessing in disguise as upon checking in the guy looked at me sort of weird and asked me if I had been drunk when making the online booking "you've had a bit of a mare there bro". Somehow I had booked the 2pm ferry from Picton to Wellington (completely the wrong direction) and the Wellington to Picton ferry was just about to leave at 1pm. Thankfully there was enough room, and the attendant gave me the tickets for the right ferry crossing as I dashed out to sheepishly tell Maud we had best get a move on to get on the correct 1pm ferry.
 
All aboard and going the right direction, I settled into my seat to write some blog as there was a power outlet. Maud seemed fairly happy for a while but then had to disappear upstairs to get some air, she didn't seem to like being in a cabin without windows and not being able to see the horizon. This worked out fairly well though as the views into Picton were apparently really nice coming through the Queen Charlotte Sound, I managed to catch a glimpse as we headed into Port ready to start our road trip on the South Island.

 
We didn't hang around in Picton as we had to get to Abel Tasman national park that evening and there were a fair few kms ahead. From Picton we drove the Queen Charlotte Drive (very scenic, a bit like Chapman's Peak drive in South Africa), west to Nelson and onto Marahau, basically the last stop on the road before the National Park.
 
We got a spot for the next two days in a fairly packed out campsite, had some Pot Noodles for tea, checked out the amazing number of stars in the skies (there is absolutely nothing here, so no light pollution), woke up our mothers at 8am for Mothers' Day greetings and then hit the hay hoping for good weather for the next as it proceeded to rain all night.