Central City Apartments Hotel Wellington

... that tried to come in while we were in there. It was quite funny.

Liz, Mari an Danny all got haircuts during the day on Monday. They were surprised to find that stylists cut hair dry here. That would definitely not fly with me, but I guess it turned out fine. Liz got her hair highlighted as well and it looks really really good.

The weather has been pretty ****** these last few days. It has rained on and off for a while and we are getting sick of finding things to ...

... would let us see our first real view of the immense Southern Alps. This uplifted mountain range acts as a barrier for huge amounts of moisture coming east off the Tasman Sea. What we are experiencing at sea level as torrents of rain, is falling as snow high up, hence the ice and glacier less than 200 meters in front of us. The national park service puts up many signs warning of the dangers of the ice wall and strongly advises not to go near the ...

... minutes, the Hotel was clean, spacious and well appointed, it's location was central and close to shopping which suited Melody who insisted that everthing was one third cheaper than back in Sydney.
We spent the whole day shopping and looking at sites from the road, Waterfront, Beehive (parliment), Latin Quarter, Cable Car.
We had diiner in Cuba Mall and found a couple of bars ...

It took us 2.5hours to drive from Kaikoura to Picton, where we got a 3hour ferry ride to North Ïsland. Wellingotns a 'real city', not at all like the quaint towns we've been used to seeing in NZ. We stayed on a scummy site in a cabin the size of our old box room (ok for 1, not ok for 3), with plastic matresses and stained sheets, eurgh!. We spent the only full day we had there in a quilt exhibition (as in what you put on a bed). We stumbled upon it by ...

... buildings, including Parliament and the notorious "Beehive" building. It is government building that was supposed to be an architectural landmark, but most of Wellington and NZ considers it an eyesore - oops! I wrapped up my walking tour of Wellington with a stroll along the harbor and then a couple hours in the national museum, Te Papa. It is a gorgeous - and free! - museum with even more about  Maori history. I can't get enough about the native people of New Zealand ...

... room at the Queenstown Lodge, overlooking Lake Wakatipu and ate dinner doing the same at the Boardwalk restaurant in town. Friday 6th February Queenstown Went into town and up the Skyline Gondola. This is the same as a skiing resort gondola and goes up the huge hill behind Queenstown, called Bobs peak. At the top there is another bungy jump and an enormous swing that goes out into nothing over the pine trees. A luge run over a couple of concrete tracks and also an office doing ...

... is also a half marathon being run for the first time. It's just the kind of thing I have brought my running kit halfway round the world for so I am cursing the timing. During the game I contemplate changing my plans again and staying another night to do the run. We go for drinks after the game but I leave relatively early as the bus to the ferry(I am heading to the South Island straight from Wello) leaves at 6:45am. Ironically its the worst nights sleep ...

... br>
Nach kurzem Zwischenstop im Mt Bruce Wildlife Center (gab's ein paar ultrarare Vögel, die ich noch nicht gesehen hatte) ging's dann in den Tongariro National Park in eine Jugendherberge mit Kletterwand. Da also schön gekraxelt als Übung für das, was am nächsten Tag kommen sollte...

Der Tongariro National Park beinhaltet im wesentlichen einen Haufen aktiver Vulkane, von denen 3 herausragen: Mt Tongariro, Mt Ngauruhoe und Mt Ruapehu. Das Tongariro ...