Capital Gateway Motor Lodge Wellington

... to St Pauls church very old by NZ standards <br> beautiful inside and then went to the official tour through their parliament buildings. <br> <br>Had a spot a lunch on the quay and then to Te Pau the Number 1 museum.<br> <br>(All in the day of a 'Joey average' traveller!!!!!)<br> <br>

... to mature in the US are ready for chopping after only 25 years. Winding our way up through the immense mass of green we saw the first clues of what was to come - the rock cut up through the side of the road showing layer upon layer, each representing a volcanic eruption, centuries apart. Before long we emerged on to the central plateau of the North Island - although the view of 'Mordor' was again obscured it didn't take much away from the sight of the barren plains stretching ...

... to wander around but with a real vibrancy and even windier than Invercargill. We spent virtually a whole day in the National Museum - Te Papa - which is very well organized with lots of helpful staff, modern, very interactive and really captures the culture and nature of New Zealand. There was a Monet exhibition on with paintings of his on loan from various places, the majority coming from ...

... into the open grass field, and know that an important piece of New Zealand history had taken place on that very grass. We drove down to Mangawhai Heads (pronouced Mung-gah-f-eye) and saw some brilliant coastline and limestone cliffs, as well as monsterous surf! Andrew wasn't quite prepared to take on the gigantic waves, so we headed a bit further down to Orewa to meet Uncle Brian. Andrew got to spend a full afternoon with his uncle, and caught some great waves (photographic ...

... feel jet lagged at all. The weather is gorgeous today, 70's and sunny. We went straight from the airport and stopped at Mount Victoria which provided stunning views of the bay and downtown Wellington (see picture). FYI - unfortunately I left the cable to my camera so I won't be uploading any of my pics, will be stealing shots off of Google Images :) Gary and Jude have a ...

... few years ago, they abolished the upper house of the parliament! The city is beautiful to visit on a sunny day. The suburbs are all located on the hills with amazing views of the mountain and sea. We were staying in a hostel called Moana Lodge in one such suburb of Plimmerton and our room's window faced the bay giving us some amazing views of the sunsets. I guess that was the highlight of our Wellington stay.

... stop on the North Island for several reasons yet to follow... <br>The National Park is a Plateau of several active volcanoes, 2 of which last erupted 1997 (I think). There's great video footage of skiers looking at the mountain they're on erupting and saying such memorable things as "Strewth! I paid a hell of a lot of money for my ski pass and now this. I want my money back! Aaaaaaarghh!" <br>The main mountains are mounts Tongariro, Ngauruhoe (a perfect conical ...