Wellington & Picton

Arrived in Wellington after a pretty long drive.
Peter Jackson had been here only a couple of days ago to premier 'The Hobbit'. We were warned that finding good accommodation in the city during this week would be difficult. Everything was going to be sold out and everyone would be putting their prices up, especially if you want such luxuries as car parking. Even finding available camping grounds was proving to be troublesome.
We did eventually manage to find somewhere with availability. Probably because it had been absolutely slated on every review website we looked at.
The reviews had painted images in my head of an awful male-only hotel you see in the movies with blokes playing checkers in the blood-stained communal areas and salty, urbanite hotel manager would be giving me attitude through a plexi-glass window. A white outline of sprawled out person on the bathroom floor remained from an earlier incident. Men would be shouting loudly outside our bedroom windows which proceeded gun shots and police sirens.

It actually wasn't that bad. It smelt awful and there were strange old men giving us weird looks whenever our paths crossed. Apparently as well as a backpacker hostel, it was a long-stay living arrangement for Wellington's down and outs. But the room was actually ok.

Windy as hell in Wellingon. I vaguely remember people telling me it's called 'windy Welly' but Jesus, they weren't kidding!

I still can't put my finger on exactly why, but I felt nothing for the city other than complete animosity, at least to begin with.

We visited Te Pappa museum. As well as a seemingly infinite amount of interesting exhibitions, they also had fast, free and unlimited Wi-Fi and very good coffee. This alone made us choose to spend at least a little of time there every day during our stay.

We also visited the Carter observatory (during the day) which I thought was great. I'm dragging Mari up to the Mount John observatory further South, so we thought it best she have a crash course in astronomy before that.

The following day we did the 3 hour ferry journey over to Picton. South Island!
Picton is a beautiful, quiet, seaside town. Our hostel (Sequoia lodge) is possibly the nicest one yet. Such incredible contrast from our last destination.
We spent a day taking a scenic drive along what can only be described as fjords. Mari felt right at home.
We were contemplating taking a wine tour in the Malborough vineyards today, but it's rained heavily all day. We've just chilled out and watched some movies and stuff instead. Tomorrow we're heading east with the target being Abel Tasman.

So that's it. Whilst not the most interesting or exciting entry I've posted, I need to keep at it because it's just as much for me to look back on and remember what the hell we've been doing all this time as it is for family and friends to keep track on where we are and what we're doing.

Here's a couple of pictures from both Wellington, the crossing and our drive in the fjords.

Giant pickled squid anyone?

Maori wood carvings