Wellington

Over 3.5 weeks on the South Island, it’s time to head north. Before hopping on the ferry we explored a short way up the coast to Bob’s Bay which had excellent views of the incoming and outgoing shipping traffic. It really is a beautiful harbour and sound. The ferry ride itself is supposed to be one of the most scenic in the world which was. We had about 1hr winding up through the Marlborough Sound surrounded by forested hills and rocky outcrops and inlet after inlet. One thing I found interesting is that we saw logging all over New Zealand but it appeared to be way more than they would require. What we learned is that that they have extensive logging programs which they export to Japan. When we final arrived at the open water we were greeted by giant waves. The ferry itself was huge but the waves still made it a really bumpy ride.

Our final destination was Wellington on the North Island. It was an actual city and we drove on a freeway for the first time in New Zealand. Wellington is a busy city with lots of restaurants, museums and theatres. We spent the afternoon exploring the city after struggling to find parking for the first time on our trip. We actually had to pay for parking, crazy. In the evening we had some fine beer sampling at Goldings Dive Bar and head to the Ortega Fish Shack and Bar for dinner. It had great reviews and turned out to be a high end restaurant rather than a shack. We ended up having a delicious sea food dinner.

As a bonus, we were able to freedom camp at a Marina that was only a 10min drive from the city centre.Read more