Kingsgate Hotel Oriental Bay Wellington

... at the moment. It goes on forever 2-3 miles consistent uphill- very steep!

No news on jobs as yet. I had an interview last Monday, which went well & am now awaiting
reference checks. I heard from Viv that they have (finally) requested reference checks, which is nice to know. I also have another appointment tomorrow with a different company, so fingers
crossed.

Last night we spent a lovely evening out at Nils and Margreets in Northlands for dinner ...

... to our hotel for an early dinner.

Wednesday (yesterday) we returned to the train to continue our journey north to Picton, it was a couple more hours of beautiful scenery and baby lambs along the way. Picton is where the ferry terminal is located on the South Island. We got on the huge ferry and crossed the Cook Straight to the North Island (aka. the largest off shore island as it is called by South Islanders). We arrived in Wellington, New Zealand's ...

... buildings in these places are ugly timber structures that resemble the main street in American wild west films. Shops are painted in bright colours with large bold font and the streets (unlike high streets in England) are deathly silent. After driving for about 7 hours we finally saw the outskirts of the capital - Wellington.


In stark contrast with its ugly brother Auckland, Wellington has a lot of charm and ...

... ich es nicht ausgehalten. Ich habe heute ueb**all Muskelkat**. Jetzt sind wir ein paar Tage in Wellington, d** nassesten Stadt in Mittel**de, laut einigen Leuten, die ihre Gummistiefel Wellies nennen. Fu** eine Stadt mit 400.000 Einwohn**n ist Wellie ganz OK. Es gibt viele Shops, die ich lieb** nicht betrete, weil ich die ganzen Sachen, die ich dort kaufen wu**de sowieso nicht tragen koennte. Es gibt viele Cafes und Bars und eine ...

... experienced an earthquake where a model house shook and rattled, then we watched a film on the Golden days when new settlers arrived from the UK. The Collosal Squid, which had been caught in the Antarctic Seas, was preserved and donated to the Museum. There was so much to see and do we decided to return the next day.

... through New Zealand's history. As a nice closer to our time in Wellington we stopped by the Mac's Brewery Bar just across from the museum, as Trude had heard something about them having a good selection of New Zealand beers. Luckily they had a sampler menu that gave her the oportunity of trying almost the entire Mac's range of beers without getting too drunk ;). The rest of our free time in Wellington was spent hiding from the rain and catching up on our blog-entries for you all to enjoy :D

... out to the Tasman sea seeing a lot of sealions and dolphins along the way, then we pulled back into a cove where the more active passengers could kayak or take small boats around the sound and the really mad ones actually swam - in about 16 degrees. Dinner was good and we met two English couples who forced us to drink to much so neither of us slept too well. In the morning we cruised around for a bit again and then made our ...

... pot. He'd been diving earlier in the morning and caught some Crayfish. They looked huge compared to what we get at home but Kelly said they were quite small compared to some. Geoff put them in the holding tank onboard the shop and we carried on toward Marlborough Sounds. Once we got out quite a way, Geoff stopped the boat and we threw down the anchor so we could fish for a bit. Geoff bated up 3 rods for us and we fished ...

... And we saw some other fun animals all in wide enclosurers, many of them without fences (moat barriers). Next we went up the gondola that looked out over the harbor and the city and over to the Pacific. Elizabeth and David took us to dinner up there and I balked at the prices, but they insisted. I had green lipped mussels and Aaron had lamb shank (I really can't beleive it cost $25 for a lamb shank!) but it was good food. Our last event of ...

Hello all! I am now settled in Wellington on the North Island for the next few weeks. After saying goodbye to the Spirit of Enderby we returned to Christchurch where we stayed for one night, then took a bus out to the Arthur's Pass area. Thus began our "whiplash tour" of one night here, two nights there, and then on to the next place. Arthur's pass is a beautiful national park nestled in the New Zealand Alps, which reach about 12,000 feet. The mountains are ...