Harcourts Holiday Park Wellington

... his foot in plaster, so we wish him a speedy recovery. They are both good fun & we enjoyed sharing travel stories, including getting some advice/pointers & talking about our forthcoming South Island trip (excited, us ... yes!)

We're slowly getting ready for Christmas, but are politely asking please not to send big or expensive presents. We don't have money to return the generosity & also cannot take them back home because of small ...

... about and I think the others are also. We have our first day of work today at the convention center at 5.

The day is pretty overcast and misty here so we are spending some down time inside after running around the city yesterday with a girl from Wellington. She showed us around Lambton Quay, the business district (which also had some awesome shopping), and then we walked back to Courtney and Cuba via the boardwalk that seems to go ...

... whilst the Maori sax player murdered 'The Walk of Life' by Dire Straits...

After seeing some at Whakarewarewa, Millie has decided she wants a Kiwi as a pet when we get back. Jake still merely wants a rattlesnake or frogs (thanks to William).

We also had a go on the Luge in Rotorua. This entailed taking the gondola up the mountainside and then speeding down the concrete runways on what can only be described as sleds on wheels, at up to 30mph ...

... they got to know in Australia.

Day 13
Wellington is known for its windy weather conditions and that day wasn't an exception. Furthermore it was also pretty cold. First of all we drove to WETA mini museum, it's a special effect company, which was involved in big projects like LOTR for instance. It was great to see the movie creatures and gadgets on shelves and particularly the short documentary film about ...

... than a trudge to O'Briens sandwich bar and back when I was out in Parkwest. Angie's parents were over end of January and much of February. My parents were here too for all of February. It was cool to have them over and they really enjoyed themselves. They were reluctant van travelers but soon got into it and made an impressive trip around the south island. Angie got to travel with her parents for 3 weeks down the south island which was great. Not so often you get to ...

... 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 ...

... stones. We had a walk out into the park then stopped for a tasty milkshake. We tried to hug the coast for a little and ended up in a private estate where plots were for sale. On either side were the sparkling blue waters. Now there's a thought.... Made a detour onto Rabbit island for a quick look at the beach and saw some Pied Shags nesting in some dead trees. They're really quite large birds and had no cover at all. We booked a table for dinner at the Anchor Bar and Grill, overlooking ...

... What is truly amazing, is how much fur can come from one animal, even an unusually fluffy one. Then was the final stint of driving before we arrived at Auckland airport. We picked up our new travelling companions and headed into the city. We enjoyed a nice meal that evening and Chris and her mum had still hardly stopped for breath after meeting at the airport! What would come of our two week tour of the North Island together, only time would tell...

... the crossing reading a book were completely futile and in desperation I got up and went to another level on the ship, where the seats were filled with people glued to the numerous TV screens in the aisles. I casually glanced at one to see what was holding everyone’s attention and in horror realised they were watching the Bathurst 1000, Australia’s greatest motor race. I couldn’t believe it – I’d missed out on watching the V8s thunder around ...