Week Four - Fun times in Aotearoa

A very different week this week. Every day I learn something new about myself and I'm learning that cities for me are not my happy places especially somewhere as familiar as New Zealand.

I did start this week with a trek up Te Mata and then onto the beautiful location of Castlepoint. I woke up so early on my departure to see the sunrise and feel the quietness of the beach and this stunning costal line and then onto Wellington.

Don't get me wrong, the cities here are beautiful and interesting but they pale into insignificance when compared to the stunning scenery and nature.

This week was spent mainly in Wellington which is a quaint, cute and different city.

You might remember Sandra and Hamish from my fabulous Annapurna trek family and from my time in Auckland. They were visiting Wellington too so caught up with them whilst in the city.

A lot of Wellington is on hills which makes for some unusual quirkiness like the individual funicular systems for houses built in the hills for them to get to their houses or to bring up their groceries. It has an amazing museum, Te Papa, which I spent a whole day in. It has Weta workshop which was an interesting tour (Weta created the Gallipoli exhibition at Te Papa and were the major contributors to the Lord of the ring trilogy ) and finally, my favourite, Zealandia.

Zealandia has a 500 year vision, it is a peice of land, fenced off to provide a safe haven for native birds and creatures. They aim to create a land that represents Aotearoa before humans arrived. What an amazing concept, it's a shame I won't see the finished product.

I feel disappointed that I had so few nature experiences this week but to be fair, nearly every day so far in Steve has had aspects of the natural world so I put my disappointment behind me and I ended the week with a wonderful walk along the Coast before getting the ferry.

A cancelled ferry put my Sunday plans on hold so I walked the other way along the coast towards Central Wellington to use my time wisely. Next available ferry, Monday morning!! The beauty of Steve, just pop into a freedom camping car park and we're all sorted for the night.

Day 28 was spent travelling. I travelled the Cook Strait and have now arrived in Te Waipounamu, the South Island. Picton is a cute town and the sun shone for my arrival. Really looking forward to exploring this new part of Aotearoa.

Total km = 3360Les mer