Wellington

As we arrived in Wellington, the land of the long white cloud turned distinctly grey but we were really excited to finally get to the capital and nothing could dampen (get it!) our spirits. The New Zealander's have renamed Wellington 'Wellywood' because of it's recent popularity amongst film directors. We've renamed it 'Windyton', however, quite simply on the basis of the weather conditions we encountered!

Staying in the closest motorcamp to Wellington centre (15km away!) we took the bus in to watch a night rugby match at the Westpac stadium - Wellington Lions vs. Auckland. With the two largest cities in the country and the current leaders vs. the defending champions, it promised to be a great game. Armed with 2 bottles of beer each and a battered hotdog (as in fried, not knocked about), we found our seats and took in the huge stadium. All the Kiwis were trying to out-cheer each other and Leo the Lion was growling around the stands leaping on unsuspecting spectators which kept us on our toes until the game started.

Beth's version of the game:
Well, I've never liked rugby being more of a footie girl myself but the atmosphere was good even if the game itself is slightly ridiculous. What's the point of gaining the ball only to have a load of 17 stone men jump on top of you? If it was me I wouldn't go near the ball...or actually, maybe I would. And why on earth is it that rugby is linked to public schools? It seems to me that nothing could be more neanderthal than a load of men with too much testosterone leaping on each other. Give me the far more skilful footie any day. The atmosphere was brilliant though and having said all that, Rugby has the potential to grow on me.

Steve's version of the game:
Great match, great beer, great chips.

Afterwards, we walked into Wellington, finding ourselves in an Irish bar of all places. Slight confusion with bus times on the way back saw us at midnight in the middle of the city, under the pouring rain and with nothing to do but wait for an hour until the next bus....and watch the boy racers. Seeing as they can drive at 15 and over 3/4 of the cars coming into the country are cheap and highly specced Japanese imports, Wellington was a race circuit for the latest Subaru Imprezas, Mitsubishi Evos and Nissan Skylines. With insurance not being legally required either, it suddenly seemed like a risky business to be driving in the cities of New Zealand at night!

We spent the next couple of days exploring Wellington. The Te Papa museum - an is an incredible interactive experience with 6 floors and so much to see and do you can't take it all in. We were even in an earthquake...well, ok, it was a simulator but it felt real! The Auckland rugby team was there too so that was a bonus. We also visited Kaitoke Regional Park and saw where Rivendell in the Lord of the Rings was filmed. We could have been anywhere in New Zealand really but we had a lovely walk anyway albeit in the rain.

The morning of our ferry trip to South Island was a brilliant spring day which is very fortunate considering as the Cook Strait is known as one of the most dangerous ferry crossings in the world. We thought we'd make the most of the sun and took a tram ride to the botanical gardens which gave fantastic views of Wellington - not as sprawling as Auckland but lacking it's style in our opinion. The botanical gardens were glorious too despite being early spring and we took a leisurely stroll through them - stopping at the fragrant herb gardens housing such stomach-growling wonders as pineapple sage, coconut geraniums and chocolate scented pelargenium. The Maori herb garden was intriguing too, particularly when we spotted anti-bacterial lemon balm and rangoa used for treating abscesses. Steve has grown another ominous lump on his face and we were tempted to pick a load to cook a concoction up in the van!

From the botanical gardens we drove up Mount Victoria for another great view of Wellington but also this was where they filmed another part of Lord of the Rings - when the hobbits were being chased by the Nazgul. We are pretty sure we found the tree they hid under (well it was a forest and there were a lot of trees but we had to pretend our walk had not been in vain).

Lunchtime saw our ferry journey to Picton, South Island and whilst waiting to board, we finally met the owners of the VW split screen camper that Steve had been drawling at when we saw it around the North Island. Lee and Julie from Rochdale are hiring it for 2 months and although it may be triple the daily hire cost of our van, it is just such cool way to negotiate New Zealand! Steve left the North Island extremely jealous.