This strait has the potential to be a little bit choppy but we were fortunate that we had a mill-pond kind of a day. It was the 1st March as we entered Wellington Harbour, a new month and a new island for us to explore. We drove out of the ferry terminal and right past the Westpac Stadium, where England were inside losing to Sri Lanka in the 2015 Cricket World Cup; I am just glad we are not big cricket fans. Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, has had a major waterfront regeneration project over the last few years, whilst retaining many of the original wharf buildings, and it shows.
It is lively, vibrant, full of a whole variety of artwork - including this wonderful carved wooden bridge containing a large seating area in the middle and linking the city centre with the harbour - and we really liked it.
It was a Sunday afternoon as we strolled around this walkable, compact city and there were people skateboarding, cycling, rowing, paddle boarding, sailing and diving into the harbour waters from a whole host of spots. Our favourite was this high diving platform, where young men attempted to splash the onlookers sitting and standing close by.
We were in 'Welly', also know as the Windy City for weather reasons or 'Wellywood' for its film industry, for 3 nights so decided to see all the tourist hot spots. Taking the cable car right up the steep hill from the centre gave us wonderful views across the whole city and harbour. The walk down led us through the beautiful botanic gardens, where I met this very nice 'Bee Lady' sculpture, past the parliament buildings, the modern cathedral (which was horrible) and on to my favourite building in the city.
This was the cathedral church of St Paul, one of the finest English gothic-style wooden churches in the world and it was a peaceful haven right in the heart of the CBD, surrounded by high rise modern blocks.
One of the common sayings in these parts apparently (as taught to us on a boat ride) is 'as wet as a shag' and we walked past this little chap sitting on the rocks drying out in the warm afternoon sunshine.
The museums in NZ have been very impressive so far and here was no exception. We popped in to the Wellington Sea Museum (mostly for Steve's benefit) then round the waterfront to the enormous, new Te Papa Museum which basically teaches you all you need to know about New Zealand, it's people, creatures and natural occurring phenomenon, in particular volcanoes and earthquakes.
I love the opportunity to learn about the countries we visit and this museum had a lot of sections relating to Maori history and culture. We are in our first town but there already seems to be a stronger Maori presence on North Island than was felt on South Island reflecting the fact that there are no official settlements left on South and although greatly reduced they are still dotted around in clusters in the North. I especially like the wooden carvings of guardians on houses and traditional buildings.
We rode on a catamaran ferry service with great views right across the harbour to visit Eastbourne, as Steve was born and bred in the English equivalent. The NZ version was much smaller and quieter, with a real retirement feel to it, but there were lots of nice wooden weatherboard houses.
Earthquakes are a big deal out here due to the presence of a large fault line, being located on the pacific rim of fire, and there is on average 1 earthquake per week in Wellington, although very small. We even have earthquake evacuation procedures documented in our motel! The motel we are staying at here is up a hill with a fine vista of the harbour below and connected to the centre by a 20 minute walk down Cuba Street, a very funky and popular street full of multi-ethnic, colourful restaurants bars and shops. Each time we walk up or down it seems different as there are so many quirky things to look at.
Leaving the capital we drove north between steep wooded hillsides, giving the impression of green lush vegetation, however this was not the case and as we have seen many times so far on our trip the rivers were mostly feeble and narrow. The landscape changed quickly to dry, flat plains but it was easy driving and we soon covered the considerable distance to our Bed and Breakfast just outside Napier, on the East coast. Once again we were entering a famous wine region, Hawkes Bay, and we hoped the local tipple would be as good as the Malborough wines we had drunk.
Our hosts were very down to earth and helpful and it was a nice change to be 'mothered' a little. The other guests were all German and friendly as we shared our travel experiences round a large breakfast table and we had a garden and pool in which to cool off.
Plus the breakfast was incredible with figs, plums, raspberries, fruit salad, smoothies, all fresh and grown locally; my favourite start to the day. We borrowed the house bicycles and followed one of the many off-road cycle routes bordering a river and then up alongside the coastline for a 20km ride in to Napier, which was delightful and amazingly flat.
The town was completely devastated by an earthquake in 1931 and had to be rebuilt with the centre artistically dominated by Art Deco buildings. The street signs, the buildings, the cathedral are all wonderful examples of the period architecture which have made Napier famous.
There are also a lot of interesting statues, beautiful parks and gardens and the whole town has a very relaxing feel to it.
The container port was greatly admired by Steve but we both thought the stylish buildings were the highlight and this chap agreed.
Last weekend 30,000 visitors flocked in to Napier for its annual Art Deco celebration with many dressed up in 1930's outfits for the occasion, even the public toilets are in keeping with the whole town theme.
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