Mercure Wellington

... when we finally say 'It is important I have the reservation now' correctly and the numbskull male pupil stumbles his way all over it.




We stayed for a couple of days in Franz Josef, home of the Franz Josef glacier. We went for a walk up it during the day and settled into the hostel at night. We got talking to – as co-incidence would have it – the same three Irish girls I had shared a room with in Queenstown. They were telling us how the Fox ...

... to Wellington, and the weather was clear, so we got some great views of Mount Taranaki and Mount Ruapehu. So we arrived home an hour earlier than scheduled, which was a bit of a problem for Mum and Dad, who arrived an hour late at the airport to surprise us – we were already at home by that time. Never mind.

... city. Being central we are in the hub of all the life, surrounded by many bars, eateries and shops. It's great seeing the hustle and bustle from one of the aforementioned establishments! Not having any real 'activities' planned for Welly, we decided to be more cultural and took in some of the museums - the massive and very interactive Te Papa (a must for a visit to Welly), the government buildings and ANZAC memorial (it was ANZAC day so ...

... a trek in the bush a few miles away. Greg is a fellow from Holland who has been in New Zealand for about 4 months on a cycling tour. He lives/breathes/eats/***** cycling... in fact he can take any topic and segway it into cycling, and he will do it whenever he can... trust me. You could be talking about peanut butter sandwiches and he'll say something like " I actually constructed a peanut butter sandwhich holder onto the wheel base of my dual suspension bike to ...

... Lodge (a bit upscale for backpackers) seems too good to be true so nothing daunted and dripping water from all points I go in and enquire about breakfast. The buffet is just about finished so the very helpful young waitress gives me 50% off on the breakfast - $10 - unlimited coffee yea - in the land of the flat white and long black at $4 a cup it's the best bargain to date. At 10.30am 5 wet souls are on the beach watching the water taxi rise and then disappear in the ...

... and they were praying for rain...well it looks like we managed to bring them some! Saying that we have had some sunshine, some really lovely days and the outlook is good! So as you see from the map entries we have been making our way through North Island for the past week. We are now joined by our new friend Dirk (the campervan!). We are enjoying the independence ...

... were all on the beach pulling all the seaweed out of the net, more seaweed than fish. That took about 2 hours. The fish they had caught the night before they wanted to smoke and I had decided to make a move today, so they said stay around while the fish smokes and take some with me.. Cool.. So we went for a walk in the bush and collected some wood, cant remember what type now though, and made a fire in the smoker, an old upright fridge freezer ...

... FREE event - A concert in the Botanical Gardens called 'SUMMER IN THE CITY' Where people take a rug and a picnic and watch a band. It was very cool and I can't believe I did two really cool things and didn't have to pay a penny for any of it. I liked Wellington's generosity! So we went to the supermarket and filled up on chips and dips to take for picnic munchies and then realised the weather was a bit cold so we would really benefit from a ...

... of this I followed Mel and Trina's example and started running to get to the pick-up bus in time. I did a Forest Gump through Mordor which was most impressive. Steep lava drop-offs, barren lava flows and ashen black deserts with hardly any vegetation and no birdlife or visible other animals whatsoever, they could not survive here as the sulfurous water is absolutely poisonous. I kept running through beautiful mudplanes and forests until I came to a walking hut at ...