Windy Wellington!! (Part One)

Well we have arrived in the capital of N. Zealand, Wellington! So at this point we are right at the bottom of the north island - incredible to think our adventures on this part of N. Zealand is nearly over! Our bus ride down from Taupo to Wellington was rather brilliant. I think our driver was v. much having a lapse of 'road rage' as he frequently filtered out this anger amongst all of us passengers through his tannoy. N. Zealand drivers were being frequently referred to as 'jerks' and 'idiots'...it created quite alot of chuckles in our double-decker! Def. our most animated bus driver yet!

Anyway...I had heard before we came to Wellington that it was renowned for being rather windy - and my word...on our first full day there, it did not fail to live up to this reputation! During out time in Wellington we visited the Parliament Buildings and also this famous cable car that appears on many Wellington postcards. For aaaages we were looking for this cable car which takes you up to a viewpoint overlooking Wellington, and by the time we found it we were virtually at the top of the track already. When we all realised this after speaking to the driver, I rather stupidly loudly said 'Oh well there's not much point paying for just one stop when we can walk it!'...and it was at this point I looked round and saw all the paying passengers staring at me from the cable car. I should really think sometimes before I speak - lol! We also went to their national museum - thought we would do something cultural for the day, and it made you realise just how prone N. Zealand is to earthquakes and volcanoes. Its ironic that whilst we have been away, Britain (which is not renowned for such events!), has had flights cancelled because of the Icelandic volcano eruption.

Our time in Wellington also saw us have our first cinema outing - woooop! We went and saw 'The Last Song'...starring the highly acclaimed actress of Miley Cyrus - lol!! We were all expecting BIG cheese, which it sincerly did not fail to deliver on, but there was to all our complete surprise some really sad moments in it. To our huge embarrassment...(and I can't quite believe I'm writing this)...but we all had a few tears!

For all the Lord of the Rings fans out there as well (including myself!)...we showed our dedication to the films by visiting Mt Victoria which is where the scenes of the hobbits running from the 'Black Riders' took place and we also went to the studios. It was weird to think we were treading in the footsteps of Elijah Woods & Peter Jackson!