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Wellingtons required!
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So it was time to move on from the rains of Rotorua... to the rains of everywhere else. We left on the Intercity just before 9 in the morning only to encounter our first road block of the journey. An over turned truck, meaning that the road between Taupo and Turangi was closed, so it was the scenic detour for us. Which allowed us time to see a lot of water flow by and all that. We were in a nice warm coach, so another hour or so, well what was that to us? That is until the windshield wipers actually broke on the coach, meaning that the front of the coach was literally blacked out by water. Maybe, that's a little dramatic but the point was that our driver couldn't continue without the distinct possibility of killing us all, so we had to sit on the coach and wait for the next coach to come along and rescue us. By the time it did we were only about three hours behind!
We eventually made it to Wellington, where it was suddenly dark but nevertheless a lot drier and after an eleven hour coach journey we were fit for nothing but crashing and failing to see out the day in a conscious manner.
We got up the next morning and basically just walked around to try and get a feel for the place. Wellington, basically just a city really, kind of like any other city we've been to. The fast food places, all the usual suspects (which is good to be able to get a BK hotcakes breakfast everywhere when required) and shops and cafe everywhere. Though it was a lot drier than up north, the drizzle set in and one of the hostel workers suggested that it was a definite museum day. So we took his advice and headed for the famous Te Papa Museum. There is a lot to see and is actually pretty different from the museum in Auckland. Te Papa is a lot more interactive, so great for kids, with more exhibition on the land and the way it has evolved over the years. One of the best bits was the Earthquake exhibit. Much like the volcano display in Auckland, in Te Papa you go into a little house and watch the news on a TV screen. The subsequent quakes that shake the entire little structure are quite rough and definitely makes you glad you aren't in the real thing. Another was the interactive video of the day in the life of a sheep. They must have strapped the camera to a sheep and it's quite interesting (and of course very funny) to see the world from his view. The sheep, of course, does not appear to be a big fan of the bossy sheep dog.
Saving the Kakapo video was perhaps the highlight. It took a serious issue of the near extinction of a bird and made a really amusing video out of the rescue efforts. Well worth a look at the ejaculation helmet and Chloe, the apparently enticing robot Kakapo.
We found a nice pub on Courtenay Place, it was a kiwi-English pub which meant that they had British sports on the TV, darts and a collection of English drinks. We are in another country to sample their culture and all that, but I (Charlie) was having cider withdrawal. I was not disappointed, as the Bulmers cider was the best I'd ever tasted. It's true that separation makes the heart grow fonder.
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