Life in the north.

To get from the South to the NZ North Island, with a car, requires a ferry from Picton to Wellington which takes about 3 hours. The journey takes you through Queen Charlotte Sound and eventually in to the open sea. The views for the first 90 minutes are stunning on a good day and we had a good day! It was actually more of a cruise than a ferry crossing.

Wellington is the capital city of NZ and in our view it's wonderful. Its architecture looks all over the place but somehow it works. It feels young and full of life. We stayed in a very fancy hotel called the Intercontinental and they really looked after us. We walked the city to death, starting on day one with a look at the marina and an initial visit to the Te Papa museum. This free museum is probably the best Maggie and I have ever seen outside of London. Its accessible, interactive and tells the Maori story with real clarity and amazing artefacts. We couldn't do it justice in one day so didn't try. More of that later. First a picture of Wellington:

On day 2 we took the cable car to see 'Zealandia' which lies above the city. This is effectively a huge beautiful valley which has been totally fenced off. The purpose was to eradicate non native species/predators such as possums, rats, hedgehogs, mice and stoats and to re create a safe and natural habitat for NZ birds (some flightless), gecko's etc. It was great to see birds like the Tui and Takahe both of whom have been close to extinction and learn how the eradication process was handled.

On return to the city we again headed for the marina and the Te Papa. We spent about 2 hours in the latter and the highlight was probably the Gallipoli presentation. The blog isn't the place to describe this WW1 event in detail but the story and personal testimonies, the pictures and artefacts paid a genuine tribute to the Anzacs and allies that died. It was moving and creative.

Now it wasn't all good in the hotel. Sadly, we had to share the same with a touring professional rugby union team from South Africa, called the Southern Kings who play out of Port Elizabeth. Yes, they were polite and really nice guys but there were about 27 of them. They all seemed a bit overweight to me but Maggie was oddly pre occupied in the hotel and just a bit giddy. Below you can see her chilling out with her new best 'friend', JP Du Plessis. He was about the smallest one I could find and has played rugby league for Sydney, rugby union in Montepellier and for a couple of teams in South Africa. Maggie has found a new enthusiasm for Rugby Union for some reason.

So we set off this morning for Taupo on route to Auckland and the new place is the biggest yet. We have two nights here and have a planned walk to the Huka falls in the morning. The USA isn't far away now but some great things to do beforehand and who knows, in the Auckland hotel there could even be a cheerleader conference.