Windy Wellington

Today we said goodbye to the South Island and got the ferry from Picton across the Cook Straight to the North Island of New Zealand. The ferry arrives in to Wellington - the capital city of NZ and well known for its windy weather - it lived up to its name of "Windy Welly" today! The ferry journey took just over 3 hours and despite being worried that we were sailing on the day the tail end of the Australian cyclone was due to hit NZ, the journey was surprisingly (and happily!) smoother than we expected. We got to see more dolphins from the ferry too - there were a small pod of them jumping around alongside the ferry as we sailed out of the Sound. Solana loved the ferry too - mainly because there was a little kids play area and she met a couple of little boys to play with. Top trivia #1 today: when you take the ferry from the South to North island (or vice versa) you are actually no further North (or South) than when you set off - Picton and Wellington are on virtually the same line of latitude. I was also amazed that the ferry, in addition to a car deck, actually also has a rail deck - where freight trains roll on and roll off the ferry at the other side.

This afternoon, after settling into our accommodation, we visited the Space Place museum & Carter Observatory. It is set in the Botanical Gardens, up on a hill overlooking Wellington, so we got some good views of the city (through the rain!) on the way there too. The museum was interesting, with some eye-catching and educational exhibits. Top trivia #2 today: humans do not burp in space (but they do fart)! We also saw a planetarium show whilst we were there, helping to orientate us to the stars in the Southern sky. Sadly the cloud was too thick for us to look through their telescope. Afterwards, we got the cable car (complete with disco lighting effects on the 2 tunnels you go through) down to the city for dinner. We are giving "Air BnB" a try tonight for the first time - staying in a small self-contained flat below the owner's house; seems good so far.Read more