Mount Victoria Homestay Wellington

... The trip down from Taupo to Wellington was quite nice, past a few volcanoes, national parks and wine regions. Some of the town were pretty cool as well, especially Bulls which has<br>some interesting name plates:<br><br>Police Station: Consta-bull<br>Toilet: Relieve-a-bull<br>Bar: Socia-bull<br>School: Knowledge-a-bull<br>Discount store: Afford-a-bull<br><br>Day 72 - Melbourne Cup day. Good bit of craic around the place. No idea about the racing, but that ...

<br>We spent most of Wednesday having a look around Wellington. We took a tram ride up to the view point above the city and walked back down through the botanical gardens and cemetery. We then headed over to the houses of parliament where we did a one hour guided tour before going into the gallery for 20 minutes to watch one of ...

... some fancy drinks, but that eventually morphed into getting some nice steaks, cooking at home, and availing ourselves of the cache of wine my hosts have collected. An eminently better choice for the celebration; no one had to worry about a cab and the whole affair was more reasonably priced. <br><br>But I'm jumping ahead a bit...the day actually started off with Steve attending his appointment with a tattoo artist to discuss his future ink ...

... particularly interesting and their charity shops were rubbish. It had been very cold at nights so I thought I could pick up an extra layer which would do me for a few weeks and then get ditched but folks in Northland must hold on to their clothes and only part with them when they should be going in the bin. Eventually I managed to find a lovely Fair Isle patterned cardigan - you will just have to take my word for it as it will not be appearing in any photographs and will ...

... displays and how they believe the earth was formed. Full of culture and knowledge we left the museum in search of an apparent all you can eat Asian restaurant. When we found it we went to town on the buffet and literally couldn't finish our plates. We decided to be lazy and go to the cinema and after that we had an early night because we had to catch the 8.35am ferry to Picton on the south island the next morning.

... exhibit where you create your own wheel of photos, with real pictures or videos of yourself and your family, plus other pictures, and music. It is kind of like a giant IPhone. Then you zoom them across to a giant screen, where you use a laser flashlight to move them around and make cool art. It was really fun and once you got the hang of it, pretty easy to do. After this, we went to make our own birds, a cool computer exhibit, then we made our ...

DAY 17 Well, part of day 16 too. We arrived in Dunedin which is a really big and fairly industrialized town mid-afternnon. We now realize that lodge is another name for B&amp;B here and we found ourstaying staying at a rather unusual one on the outskirts of town. Edwardian I'd think but with lots of wood paneling and knights in armour about the place. We had nice room with superb wet room/bathroom - they do them well here. As we hadn't stopped for ...

... marina and after a wash and brush up we taxied there for dinner. There was a great sunset so we decided to walk back to the room. Nelson was pretty deserted -Typical Sunday night?? When we got back we booked the room for another night as we've decided to do a little wine tasting tomorrow.. Monday 16th February Nelson Booked the wine tour first thing, then got some food and money and then we were picked up at 12.10 by Rose, a kiwi from the north island, who was our guide for the day ...

... that showed what it would be like to be in one of Wellington's frequent earthquakes. We also saw an exhibition about Maori culture and history and an interactive show in which we saw lots of clips of NZ in the last few decades which was quite random. Jarrod took us on the scenic route to Mount Victoria, via the 'Beehive' (the parliament building) and we looked at the view over the harbour. After lunch, we headed up ...

... in a movie theatre with<br>dear and lovely friends watching a film, and being super cosy as you<br>attended said film in your pjs. Churchill Dickens (my long term stuffed<br>bear buddy) felt the event was also rather stellar. And he is very<br>highbrow. So if he likes something it really must be good.<br><br>Sunday<br>night was also rather super with a family meal out at a thai<br>restaurant. Sharon and I of course ate duck. Nothing like ...