Capital Gateway Motor Lodge Wellington

... anyway. I arrived at Wellington after lunch, checked into a hostel, and had a walk along a coastal area called Oriental Bay, and then climbed a steep hill to Charles Plimmer Park, reaching the pinnacle called Mont Victoria Lookout. In the evening, I went to an ornate one screen cinema to watch the new Star Trek movie, which I really liked, even though it contained a ridiculous number of inconsistencies ...

... Is it ruffing it if there's a bar?) so the Canadian guy and a German girl joined me for a couple beers on the dock outside the bar. On the walk back we noticed glow worms sticking to the side of the dirt wall along the path. They shone like blue stars. I walked 27kilometers in 6.5 hours that day so after a couple beers and sleep came easily. The next day I started out in the morning and got lost, or went the wrong way two times. Plus I was feeling like I was in a ...

... those ancient drowned valleys to enter the strong currents and rough waters of Cook Strait, which separates the North and South Islands. Capt Cook landed here in the 1770s and claimed British sovereignty over the South Island. We were lucky and the sea was calm and we soon arrived in Wellington harbour. Wellington is a great city and I much preferred it to Auckland. Much smaller and ...

... with some maori ones but i'm getting increasingly desperate to track some down before i leave - I left it at rotorua thinking i'd have loads of chances later in my trip, i missed it at picton cos i didn't see the shop till i was on the airport shuttle and the art centre at christchurch was lovely but a bit too pricy for what i wanted to spend so the search goes on. tonight I have the pleasure after dinner of doing my washing - oh deep joy !!

... lucky there are seals & dolphins to see ( we saw seals)the waterfalls, not just any old waterfalls these were spectacular ones as these are amazing especially after heavy rain & they take you so close to the falls you get soaked, the mountains which rise above are so so high it is just breathtaking, on our way back we stopped off at an underwater observatory before joing the coach back to the site, at one point we were asked wether we were nearer ...

... Frodo (well his windscreen). We arrived in Nelson at 1pm and booked into a campsite with hot showers and a laundry! We explored the small city of Nelson, which is set on the coast and has become one of the most popular visitor destinations in New Zealand. We found Jens Hansen jewellers, famous for the creation of THE ONE RING for the LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY. Replicas of this ring and ...

... besser. Und ich habe die Strecke erstaunlicherweise in 5h statt der veranschlagten 6h geschafft:-) Die Angelus Huette am Lake Angelus ist eine der beliebtesten Huetten in Neuseeland, man kann hier von St. Arnaud aus in einem Tag hinwandern und zurueck oder uebernachten. An meinem Geburtstag hatten hier mindestens 24 Leute in der 16 Mann Huette uebernachtet... Da mir das ...

So, 109 days, 6 countries and 2756 photos later, here we are back in Wellington in our own house, with our own bed, kitchen, shower, car - Amazing how much you appreciate the little things once you've been backpacking for a while, like people speaking English, not having to fight for space on the hob to cook dinner, different (and clean!) clothes to wear! Heaven! In spite of all the Lonely Planet warnings and first hand stories from fellow ...