Wellington, New Zealand North Island – April 9th – 10th, 2017

We spent a full day in Wellington, before reluctantly saying goodbye to the north island. When we arrived, the first thing we spotted was the EXACT cruise ship that we had taken to Alaska with Andy’s family in 2015! Celebrity Solstice is apparently a bit of a whore (she gets around). After this crazy coincidence, the best parking spot in the city freed up right in front of us as soon as we approached the downtown area! It was going to be a great day! From our VIP spot, we walked directly across the road to the farmer’s market. When I say, “directly across the road,” that is exactly what I mean – we literally Asia style jay walked right in the middle of busy Sunday morning traffic. Oops, gotta remember what country we are in. The farmer’s market was hopping with locals picking up fresh fruit and veges (NZ spelling) and enjoying the food trucks along the harbor. Of course, we joined in, stocking up on produce and indulging in fresh fruit ice cream, which is SO good! They have this special machine which mixes a brick of ice cream with fresh fruit of your choosing. I repeat: SO GOOD! After storing our purchases in the van, we walked back across the street (this time using the cross walk) to the Te Papa museum. We spent a couple of hours at the impressive free museum walking through exhibits on earth science, NZ animals (native vs. imported), NZ in World War 1, and Mauri culture. The visit was only hindered by the Sunday crowd, which was made exponentially worse by the cruise ship crowd.

Pics from around Wellington.

Once we had our downtown fill, we took the coastal road through the suburbs of Wellington, stopping along the way to enjoy a cider/beer overlooking the picturesque city. It was a beautiful day, we couldn’t have asked for better weather (well… maybe 5 degrees warmer would have been nice). Based on Scott’s recommendation, we next played a round of mini golf at an eccentric metal art gallery / homemade mini golf course. Even though the ball never rolled where you actually hit it, we had a blast (Andy would like it mentioned that he won). As the sun was beginning to set, we made our way to a free coastal parking lot to crash for the night. The sunset was the perfect end to a perfect day (with the exception of the 5-degree temperature differential… if we’re being absurdly fussy).

Wellington area coastline and the sunset from our camp spot.

Mini golf at Carlucci Land. Notice the Honesty box and credit card machine for paying. 

Before catching the early morning ferry, we met up with our good friends Alan and Eileen at their hotel for breakfast. They had arrived in New Zealand a few days before to visit Alan’s family and yours truly. The five of us (including Eileen’s daughter, Paige), had planned to spend 5 days together in Pohara on the northern coast of the south island. We were thrilled to see them and excited to spend some quality time together! Before temporarily parting ways, they offloaded the excessive amount of stuff they had graciously brought with them from the US – the most exciting of which was a BRAND NEW FANCY PANTS CAMERA! You can expect photo quality to improve significantly in future posts. YAY!   

Saying goodbye to Wellington and the north island.