Hi everyone,
We finally made it to the North Island!
After the Mediterranean-like Abel Tasman National park, we made it up as far as Golden Bay on the far Northern shores of the South Island, where we stayed in a nice little hippyish town called Takaka, and managed to find a temporary engagement ring for Sarah in a shop full of psychadelic T-shirts and goblin-shaped candles. The ring actually smells of incense!
Early morning mist in Golden Bay
We also visited the world's largest and purest freshwater springs at the slightly inappropriately named 'Pupu' and stopped at another nice little town called Pohara, which is only really worth mentioning so that we can include this sign we spotted there:-
Brilliant!
After another couple of days grinning at each other and putting our fellow campers off their breakfasts we thought we'd better put our travel hats back on (literally in Phil's case - the hair is getting really quite shaggy now) and get moving again.
So on Thursday we caught the Interislander ferry from Picton to Wellington. We were lucky enough to have a sunny day and a very smooth crossing, which was (as we have become accustomed to...) very scenic as the ferry passes through the Queen Charlotte Sound for the first 90 minutes or so of the crossing before reaching the Cook Strait and arriving in Wellington.
Interisland sheep
Now of course none of you will need telling that though it is only NZ's third largest city, 'Welly' is the capital (apparently some ill-educated folk think Auckland is the capital. Tch).
Wellington harbour (viewed from the warmth of a bar!)
We really loved it. It is a very cosmopolitan city, with lots of funky shops, galleries, and loads of cultural stuff going on. Which we largely ignored and went to the zoo instead to see a one legged Kiwi!
Tahi ('One Leg' in Maori) has had a fairly eventful life and is a bit of a local celebrity. He was caught in a gin trap (which are used a lot round here for 'pests' such as stoats and possums), and left his leg in it. Poor old Tahi was rescued by Wellington Zoo, and has been a star attraction since. They even got the production team who made Lord of the Rings to make him a prosthetic leg, but he didn't take to it and seems to be happier hopping about looking for worms, the crazy dude.
We also visited the fantastic Te Papa museum and went on a cable car ride to get views back over the city. It is quite a hilly place and some of the private residents have their own cable cars to access their houses - we are jealous!
Oh and last but not least, we also went shopping in Wellington - for an engagement ring! This took a bit of time since Sarah has never worn rings (or indeed any 'proper' jewellery at all!), and didn't have a clue what she wanted. To start with at least. By day 2, she had actually become surprisingly decided - on a design that not a single jeweller in Wellington had... so we had to order it to be made specially!
It's a three stone ring - with one golden-coloured diamond (like the sun - aaahh), and two small white ones to either side. We'll pick it up in Auckland next week (hopefully it'll be ready or we'll never make it to South America!) - and post a photo then for anyone who's interested in these things!
Since we arrived on the North Island the weather has taken a bit of a turn for the worse. So we've been mooching about doing not very much in some of towns on the South- West coast (Palmerston North and Waingaru) and crossing our fingers that by the time we get up to Lake Taupo - our next major stop - the sun will have come back and we can get our walking boots back on.
Until then, there's always another game of scrabble and a baked potato in the microwave...
All for now then. Lots of love,
Sarah and Phil x x
p.s. No we don't want to hear any more stories about how London has gone tropo and Whitley Bay is the new Bondi!
