All is well in Wellington
Well I’ve never been to a windier city. Perth is bad at times, Dublin is worse and Wellington tops them both.
Our first stop was Zealandia, which was an animal sanctuary that is as far from a zoo as you can get. There’s no netting to keep the birds in and the only walls were for keeping the humans out of known habitats for some of the species which were being protected in this special place. We got to see some of the native Tuatara’s and some native parrots.
After that we were cold and hungry so headed to a little cafe called Polo, which served some unexpectedly good corn chowder. This left us just minutes from the Weta Cave. It sounds like a cave, but in its arena is a famous workshop business which produces amazing set pieces and props for TV shows and movies.
We had been told that the weather might take a turn for the worst over the next couple of days. We tested our wet weather gear and windscreen wipers and decided they weren’t up to scratch. So we headed to the local car rental shop to get them replaced. They tried to help and in the process made them worse. So we said screw that and headed to the local super cheap auto and Mark fixed em up real good.
After so much excitement the day before we were already exhausted by early afternoon, but we wanted to make the most of our time here. Instead of doing something sensible, we tested our limits by visiting ‘Te Papa’ the museum of New Zealand. From memory, it had 6 floors and it felt like it was six storeys wide and deep as well. We didn’t get many photos as we couldn’t be bothered turning on the cameras and lifting them to our eyes. We did get strangely enthusiastic about a cow made of corned beef cans.

We had a nanna nap at the hotel before heading out into the busy city for food. Screw walking, we took a cab. After dinner we got some fresh air in our lungs with a walk along the quays, where we run into a loud and proud gathering of Dr Who fans. So we stood at the stage doors with all the other fans and clapped every person who walked out the door. (Including the lighting and music guys, because they don’t get nearly enough praise)
After such a busy day we headed back to the hotel and had a great sleep knowing that the next day we had to be up early to catch the ferry over to the South Island.