Wellington — Wellington, New Zealand
Driving from Taupo to Wellington we had originally planned to visit Napier and Hastings on the way. In the end we ruled this out on the basis that it is a days driving and a tank of diesel out of the way. Instead we headed straight to Wellington. It was great to be in a buzzing city again. I felt slightly at home when we hit a tiny bit of traffic in the city centre. Having said this finding a space to park the camper in an outdoor car park in a tiny spaces wasn't as much fun. Wellington, known as the "coolest little capital" was indeed pretty cool. It is said to have more bars, restaurants and cafes than New York and the city certainly isn't that big!
We managed to find a camper van park right in the city centre, which although was simply a car park next to the main road (not remotely glamorous), it worked out cheaper than camping outside the city and driving in each day. We set up camp there for 4x nights and although it was basic, it was perfect given that it was walking distance from the hub of the city. Our first evening in Wellington was great. Valerie Adams (New Zealand shot put) had returned back from the London Olympics and was presented her gold medal. The presentation was held in Auckland but displayed on big screens at Wellington waterfront. Following this was as big display of fireworks over the waterfront. The Kiwi's were really proud and it was a great atmosphere, despite standing out as obvious Brits when everyone stood to sing the National Anthem and of course we didn't know the words. Johnny and I were expecting the waterfront to be really crowded given that everyone was talking about it that day and it was built up on the radio and TV. We are prepared ourselves for a massive crowds when in fact it goes to show how small the population is (or how big the population is in London) when the waterfront (although fairly busy) wasn't overly crowed and we could see perfectly well.
Our time in Wellington went fast. We filled our time doing the usual touristy attractions including visiting Te Papa (New Zealand's national museum) which took up nearly a day in itself. The museum is jam packed with hands on sections about volcanos, earthquakes, rocks of the earth and Kiwi history. It was well worth the visit. We went to St Paul's Cathedral which admittedly was a little disappointing given that its quite a modern small building - it certainly made me appreciate the London version. We visited Weta Caves where the special effects of Lord of the Rings began and we went up on the cable car to the Botanic Gardens at the top of the hill overlooking Wellington. The Botanic Gardens were brilliant! We had held out until our last day for the weather to be nice so that we could go up there. The gardens at the top are like being in another world. Neither of us could believe how quiet it was and the views were pretty special overlooking the city and the harbor. Wellington is a university town so the gardens were full of students playing games, studying and chilling out which gave it a really nice atmosphere. The gardens were far better than we had expected and the cable car up was a nice little quirk. We spent around 3 hours up there strolling around the various themed gardens.
For our final night in Wellington we had budgeted a night out and dinner. We went to a couple of bars along the waterfront before dinner. One thing that Johnny and I had noticed is that the bars and pubs in Wellington were quite English in style. It was the first place yet that we have found proper pubs, or indeed any pubs at all. After dinner we had just enough cash left for a couple more drinks each so we headed to Might Might. Johnny had of course, in true 'Johnny style' researched the best bars in Wellington. Unfortunately no 1 was too far out in a suburb and no 2 was far too expensive so he reluctantly settled for Time Outs third best bar in Wellington - Might Mighty. We thought by 9pm on a Sat night it would be busy but when walking it in was dead. Nether the less, we stayed for a drink and it gradually got busier. The bar is known for its live music but typically the night that we were there it was an alternative rock band - not really our sort of thing. I imagine going there on a more commercial band night would be great but at least we got to have a night out, after all this is the first time we have had a drink since arriving in New Zealand!
We had a great 4 days in Wellington. The final day we had the morning in town before we got on the ferry to head 'down' to the South Island. I say 'down' but I was corrected on the ferry as apparently the bottom of the North Island and the top of the South Island are actually on the same latitude and hence it's a misconception to travel down to the South Island - who knew!