We started early and as a result saw this beautiful sunburst. click this photo to enlarge. it is worth it.
We then headed south towards Wellington. On the way we saw a sign for Rivendell and pulled off the road. The area where Rivendell was shot doesn't look much like Rivendell from the LoTR films but it was certainly a beautiful area.
When we got to Wellington the first thing we did was navigate to the Botanical Gardens and have a bite to eat. Then down to the hostel to drop off our stuff, over to the Apex car place to drop off the car and down to the water.
I found Wellington to be a bit like Hamilton in Bermuda.
A shot of Te Papa, the great New Zealand museum. We went in the next day.
One particularly cool exhibit had a map of New Zealand on the floor that you would walk across. As you stepped on different areas the walls would light up and show highlights of history in the areas.
In the evening we caught the cable car up to the gardens to get a view out over Wellington at night.
The next morning we caught breakfast at an amazing place called Restaurant l'Affare. Great coffee, great food.
Then we did Te Papa and went into the Wellington Library which was really nice. I read a quick history of New Zealand.
Being the walkers we are, we decided to go up to Mount(hill?) Victoria to get a view out over Wellington from a different direction.
We walked up this hill to the start of the forested walk.
At the top I took this pretty poor "myspace" photo. Not so good but the best I've got.
After we hiked down the hill we sat for a while and had an apple before going to get our stuff and go to the Airport. I took advantage of some of the nearby structures.
Then we went to the airport and flew back to Christchurch! I wrote a bunch of postcards in the airport as we waited for out flight. We didn't have to go through security to get to the gate. Weird!
Though my North Island adventures were fantastic and enjoyable I can't wait to blog about my more recent tramps up Avalanche Peak and French Ridge. Each of those hikes got well up into the snow and as such were technically more demanding and in a way more exciting than any walk I've ever done.
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