Mercure Wellington

... is super close to our bank and the cell phone store which is convenient as well. <br><br>We've made a schedule notebook to keep all of our appointments that seem to keep coming up. Danny has used her notebook and has become a pretty good little secretary with writing things down and keeping us organized. Today we are meeting a friend of a friend for lunch, a kiwi girl who is our age. We are hoping learn a lot from here and maybe even find another friend in the process! :)

... we walked home after the night out guess who we bumped into on the street again but Rockococko so i obliged to give him a photo lol! Some size of a man he was but was really nice it seemed and was no problem getting pic with him. It was strange bumping into him twice in the one day so think it was meant to be to get the pic with him.<br>Back to bed for about 3 hours sleep before having to get up at 630 to leave for ferry as check in was 7am-fun times!<br><br><br>

... clearly see that particularly in the stormy weather. The light disappears here very quickly and it is completely dark just before 6 so I had to head for the nearest campsite which was in a beautiful spot on a small bay (at the bottom of what seemed like a cliff) - but it was free. The next day's drive was through some fantastic sub tropical forest with hundreds of tree ferns and the biggest living Kauri tree. There is definitely something quite mystical about these huge ...

... a while and didn't get home til 3am. The next afternoon we had to scrape ourselves out of bed because we wanted to go to the National Museum, Te Papa. We weren't disappointed. The museum was pretty cool. There was a section devoted to earthquakes and volcanoes, two big parts of New Zealand's geography/history. The displays showed all the volcanoes along the faultlines, there was an earthquake simulation room and ...

Well kids this is it the bags are packed, the taxi is booked and I still can't find my keys!!! But we did get our money back from Westpac. Crazy. We put a bank cheque in to Westpac a week a go and it still had yet to clear. Man I actually don't get them aye? Me and Kayla were like, we fly out tonight and that is all our ...

... time.. When we got to Nelson we decided to treat ourselves a little on a room as last nights had been such good value! Booked in to the Leisure Lodge.. A very large lounge with a separate bedroom and a spa bath. Luxury! We walked into town, but struggled a little to get food. The main reason was that it was Valentines night.. We managed to get served in the end by eating outside on a less romantic pavement table. Good food though, followed by some good beer in the Vic pub opposite ...

Today was the day we had to leave South Island and get the Interislander from Picton to Wellington so we drove the scenic route from Nelson along the edge of Marlborough Sounds which were spectacular. In Picton, we had a wander and grabbed some lunch before getting the lunchtime ferry. The ferry journey was remarkably calm (we had been warned about the choppiness of the Cook Strait) and we arrive into Wellington in the ...

... impressive, but it was still interesting to see them in the 'real' world. The following day was the day of the big arrival and there was still a distance to travel and some interesting animals to see. Before we left the camp site, we visited the Kiwi House located behind. There, among other animals we had our first glimpse of a Kiwi, although not a wild one. These were in a room with controlled lighting, so the nocturnal animals would sleep ...

... to see a Japanese girl again who I had met in Auckland, so I enjoyed dinner with her after that. Strangely, I was destined to see her once more in Auckland later. Although another famous tourist spot must be the parliament buildings and I joined a guided tour there, it was not special compared with the other parliament buildings I have ever visited but the appearance of the next building called "Beehive".<br><br> <br>