Capital

"The Beehive" - New Zealand's Parliament Building in Wellington

After leaving ecothermal land, we made our way south on the North Island to New Zealand's capital city - Wellington. Wellington is known for being a very windy and very compact city, but very lively and interesting even though it only has 300,000 people compared to Auckland's 1.5 million. Wellington is New Zealand's second largest city, and it's hard to believe that there is no city between the sizes of Wellington and Auckland. New Zealand is just a very unique country. We drove to the top of Mount Victoria for a view of the city and spent the rest of the Morning exploring Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum. It's six stories tall, and full of the history, ecology, culture and art of New Zealand. We spent almost four hours there and still didn't come close to seeing it all. A very interesting experience in New Zealand's Capital.

Maori Temple in Te Papa

After our museum visit, we boarded the InterIslander Ferry to journey southward to the other island. The ferry was an experience in and of itself. It was big enough to hold several buses, semis, and even a train, in addition to hundreds of passengers. The views were beautiful and the seas were calm for our sail across the pond to the South Island.

New Zealand's capital from the ferry

After a wonderful three hour sail, we were in Picton, and I immediately recognized the greener and more dramatic landscape of the South Island. We are overnighting in downtown Blenheim, in the heart of wine country, and I'm glad to be back to get another look at this amazing part of New Zealand. More adventures to come.

Back in the South