Wellington

On the way down we passed the Tongariro National Park which has an active volcano Mt. Ruapehu. This erupted about 4 weeks and gave the School kids 2 days off before they decided it wasn’t a serious menace. When we went by they had some cloud over them but Mt. Ruapehu is the middle of the three.

 

We had the compulsory tour on the coach before going to our hotel, the Beehive holds the various Government departments, Armed Forces and Civil Defence are in the lowest 2 floors which are underground, hope they have some secret ways out, an earthquake might topple the building on top of them.

Of course we went up a hill to get a view of the city and the harbour, not to mention a Maori totem pole.

The whole place was Hobbit mad with sculptures, banners etc. everywhere including a giant Gandalf outside the cinema that had held the World Premier 2 days earlier.

We stayed in  the only poor hotel so far, a Travelodge, not as good as British ones, but at least we found our 1^st MacDonald’s to use the internet.

Before we left we visited the New Zealand Museum, only had 2 hours, needed at least 2 days. The Earthquake display was amazingly, and there was free Wi-Fi without the restrictions of MacDonald’s, I could download attachments for instance.

Leaving Wellington we went past the Old Cathedral, they have a brand new one but it isn’t so nice.

Finally onto the ferry over to the South Island, the crossing of the Cook Strait (there he is again) was incredibly smooth, apparently a blessing indeed.