Moana Lodge Wellington

<br>Day 71 - Up early and chuffed to be told at 5.45 that the walk was<br>cancelled, apparently a cold front was coming in. My claims of being<br>Scottish and used to these conditions made little difference. I<br>therefore wandered arounf town, got some breakfast and decideded to<br>head to Wellington rather then get the bus to River Valley. Essentially<br>i wanted to get to the city early to see the Melbourne Cup and the bus<br>would get in too late.<br ...

... squid on display. It was an ugly sucker and there were videos of how it was captured near the south pole and how the scientists learned from it and then preserved it. This was followed by a five minute 3D animation on how the squid would have lived. We also checked out the section on the Maoris and also looked at displays about how people emigrated to NZ. We learned quite a bit about Maori history and culture from ...

Hello there from Wellington! Today was a lucky day! We spent the day in Wellington, where it was windy, but sunny, and we did a lot of fun things. We went to the museum, did bungy jumping, rode a four wheel bicycle around the harbor and the Oriental Beach, and hiked ALLLLLLLL of the way to the top of Mt. Victoria, which is very far! First, we went back to Te Papa, the National Museum, to see a few things we missed. They have a very cool ...

... stones. We had a walk out into the park then stopped for a tasty milkshake. We tried to hug the coast for a little and ended up in a private estate where plots were for sale. On either side were the sparkling blue waters. Now there's a thought.... Made a detour onto Rabbit island for a quick look at the beach and saw some Pied Shags nesting in some dead trees. They're really quite large birds and had no cover at all. We booked a table for dinner at the Anchor Bar and Grill, overlooking ...

... we spent the evening chatting, watching Shortland Street (NZ's daily soap that is very addictive) and eating 'Fush and Chups'. The next day, Stef had to go to work but Jarrod didn't so he showed us around Wellington. First we went to Te Papa ('our place' in Maori), the national museum, where we saw lots of cool things including the 'Colossal Squid' that had been fished up a year ago and preserved and an earthquake ...

... What is truly amazing, is how much fur can come from one animal, even an unusually fluffy one. Then was the final stint of driving before we arrived at Auckland airport. We picked up our new travelling companions and headed into the city. We enjoyed a nice meal that evening and Chris and her mum had still hardly stopped for breath after meeting at the airport! What would come of our two week tour of the North Island together, only time would tell...