windy welly

After leaving Dunedin, we headed north towards Lake Tekapo. Lake Tekapo is a beautiful little town. We visited the little church there, which appearently is the most popular church to get married in in NZ. It was freezing in Lake Tekapo! We wore layers of clothes to try and stay warm. The bus driver organized a bbq for supper so we went for a little while =). We only stayed long enough to eat because it was so cold! We went back to our hostel, which had a woodstove! Score! We laid by the woodstove with shortbread and tea and had a game of Scrabble.

The next day we were off to Christchurch again. We arrived early afternoon because the weather was so bad that we didn't make many stops along the way. We took advantage of the free wi-fi at the library and caught up on some emails. We hung out at the hostel for a while, where we met a couple of funny guys from Israel and played cards. Tina and I then went to a couple of Irish pubs - Bailies and Sullivan's. Sullivan's had a live band that was quite good.

Early the next morning we headed for Kaikoura. When we got to Kaikoura just before lunch, it was beautiful! Finally some warm weather! We spent the afternoon laying outside by the pool. We had a relaxing night hangng out at the hostel. I played cards with a group of people from Spain, England, and Holland.

The next morning we headed off for Picton, which is where you catch the ferry to the north island. The ferry ride was just over 3 hours. We had a beautiful day for a crossing. Tina spent her time on the deck, excitedly seeing many new seabirds!

Change over to t: Best thing i did in nz yet. Yay shy mollymawks and northern giant petrels!

the ferry landed in wellington, cap city of NZ. a cool town nestled around Oriental Bay. spent the first few days checking out the city with our Scottish friend Bryan who we met a few weeks earlier on the south island.

first impressions of Welly: 1) it's effing windy! 2) the peope look and dress differently than those on the south (more 'north american' looking in terms of style and complexion, except for #3); and 3) there are more Maori here than in the south. lots of jogggers along the waterfront; tons of skateboarders here; lots of cool cafes, restaurants (especially turkish kebab shops! there's a kebab restaurant on every corner for sure), and bars/pubs. visited the super awesome Te Papa National Museum. amazing displays, exhibits, and interactive pieces. def a highlight of our trip.

On Paddy's Day, e and i went to kitty o'sheas and ran into a friend from queenstown. ha! then moved onto molly malones for live tunes. people in welly go all out for paddy's day! the streets were crowded and bars packed with all ages decked out in serious green and paddy's paraphrenalia. awesome. was a v good night =).

plan for thurs is to hire a car with bryan for 3 days and head nw of welly to see taranaki region and mt taranaki, a near-perfect conical dormant volcano that dominates the landscape there. yay driving on the wrong side of the road! see what happens... hopefully the brit is a good coach.

- first photo is lake tekapo

- second is civic square in wellington

- third is of fun bldgs on cuba street, where there's tons of cafes, pubs, shops.

e and t