Cambridge Hotel Wellington

For those of you who were worried, we've made it safely to the north island. The seas were quite choppy on the way through Cook Straight, but both of us managed not to throw up over the side of the ferry. RICK is very happy to be back on land as his parents never enrolled him in swimming lessons when he was a youngster. From here, our sights are set on Tongariro National Park (also a World Heritage Site). We set off tomorrow for four days around the volcano. Stay tuned for pictures.......

Tja, wir sind jetzt hier in Wellington, und zwar frueher als geplant wegen eines ziemlich bloeden zwischenfalls. Wir sollten naemlich am Montag in aller Herrgottsfrueh von unserem Bus abgeholt werden und in den Tongariro National Park gebracht werden, von wo aus wir eine Wanderung ueber den Schicksalsberg aus Herr der Ringe machen wollten. Waren voll aufgeregt weil die Wanderung ziemlich heftig ist und ca 8 Stunden dauert. Und dann standen wir da und der Bus kam nicht. Hab dann nach einer hal...

Wie sicherlich jeder mittlerweile weiss ist neuseeland vorallem fuer "Herr der Ringe" bekannt, der dort im ganzen Land und natuerlich in Wellington gedreht wurde.
Die Produktionsfirma "Weta", die sich auch fuer andere Filme ausser "Herr der Ringe" und "King Kong" von Peter Jackson verantwortlich zeigt (z.b. Master and Commander, Last Samurai, Die Chroniken von Narnia, Koenigreich der Himmel, Avatar oder der bis jetzt noch nicht realisierte Halo Film), hat hier ihren Sitz.

Wie es sic...

The nation's capital... windy welly!

After we gathered our stuff we got to our hostels and me and naomi shared a room with chris and laura in base and we all had a room to ourselves which was pretty sweet or sweet as, as the new zealanders love to say, we notice our bus driver said it over 10 time in 30mins, surely that's some kind of record! So once settled in wellington, we headed to the hostel next door, actually it was more like a hotel called the cambridge where neal and james were and the USA boys and keith, where for a wh...

They said "expect wind", and they weren't kidding. Remember that scene in "Almost Famous" when they're on the aeroplane and it jolts and Jimmy Falon's character yells "we shouldn't be here"? I'll bet someone thinks that on every approach to the Wellington airport. The screaming Cook Strait's winds were almost more than our little twin turbo prop could handle. I can't wait for the take-off in two days! I distracted myself by watching the candy wrapper in my hand float into the air due to the p...

Last time I wrote I was still in Christchurch which feels like months ago now! As you can perhaps see from the map I have covered alot of ground in the last week! The bus ride to Kaikoura all went very smoothly with some very scenic views over the bays until we arrived at the hostel and the bus driver realised that he had left the keys to the hatch (where the bags are stored) a few hours back at a little cafe! This would not have been such a problem but some of us were booked on a 12.30 dolph...

I didn't want to leave Renwick and out lovely hostel but we had to get to the North Island, we're only about 2 weeks overdue. Eek! Lee drove to Picton as the road is quite notorious for police. I think we got off lightly when we drove from Abel Tasman as it was Guy Fawkes night and they obviously had better things to do but we had been warned this stretch of road was bad for them, sticking people on for crossing the centre line or speeding or whatever they can get you for apparently. Anyway, ...

We drove off the ferry and went straight to our hostel the Cambridge. We soon realised parking would be an issue and ended up having to move our car several times whilst we were staying there, as parking was free on the road after a certain time but cheaper in the car park the rest of the time...Great! We settled into the hostel, and the following day we got up to explore the city. We went round the Te Papa museum which is a really big place and free to get into. They had some really good dis...