Blue Mountains and Aussie Rules

This morning I again woke up early and got on a train, this time to the Blue Mountains. The Blue Mountains are about 2 hours outside of Sydney (by train). They get their bluish color from all the eucalyptus trees that grow there. I was going primarily to see a geological formation called the Three Sisters.

The first part I saw was this lovely little waterfall.



I hiked through the foliage for about half an hour. Then I went and did the few touristy things that are out there - a skyway, a cable car, and a very steep railroad (used to be a cable transport system). This picture on the ralroad struck me as very funny - and then Indiana Jones music started playing as we plunged almost straight down!



A few minutes walk away were the Three Sisters. Here's a few pictures of them and the surrounding landscape:







It was really beautiful out there. Before I caught the train back, I saw an IMAX movie about the area, and it turns out they found a prehistoric species of tree there not long ago - there are only about 40 of them, but the species dates back to the dinosaurs!

Then I caught the train back into the city to go to an Australian Rules Football game, or Aussie Rules or Footy, as they call it here. It was awesome! It's very fast paced - no pausing, no timeouts - and really exciting. I had the rules mostly figured out by the end, but even not knowing what was going on I was really into the game. It was almost like extreme soccer if you could use your hands. I can't describe it. I bought my tickets early, so I was only three rows back!




In any case, the game was between the Sydney Swans (Swannies!!!) and the West Coast Eagles. The Eagles played a lot better than the Swans for most of the game, but in the end they won by only one point. It was thrilling!

I have some other cool pictures of the game, but my computer died last night before I could upload them. I'll try to upload them later, if only for the sake of my dear old Dad, who loves Aussie Rules!

Sydney: The City of Stairs

Yesterday was a day of stairs. Everywhere I went, from the train station to the opera house to the harbor bridge was nothing but stairs. I'm getting ahead of myself though.

My plan for today was to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I woke up a bit late but made it just in time to get all suited up. They give you a jumpsuit, a climb belt, a neat little device to attach you to a cable running up the bridge, and a radio. Then you start climbing steps. I couldn't take my camera, but I got these shots later that will show you where I was. We went all the way to the top, across, and then back down. The weather was gorgeous, and the views were incredible. It was a totally exhilirathing experience, and I highly recommend it!

Here's the bridge, and then a closer shot of the people climbing it.





After I climbed the bridge, I went over to the opera house to have the tour that came with my sunset cruise. It was really neat to be able to get inside the symphony and opera halls when they were just setting up. I have about five million more pictures of the exterior of the opera house, but in an effort to be interesting, I'll show you the interiors. Here's an example of some of the woodwork:



And here's what the main symphony hall looks like:



They were working in the opera hall, so I still wasn't able to get a good picture of it.

Since the day was clear, I decided it would be cool to go to the Sydney Observatory for the night tour. I had some time to kill first though, so after a quicky dinner, I whizzed through the aquarium. I got to see lots of great Australian fish and sharks, plus a gigantic crocodile and even a little platypus.

I made it over to the Observatory and took the night tour. I'll admit I was quite exhausted from the day and it was hard to concentrate. However, we did get to look through the telescope, and I got to see Betelgeuse (a star in Orion), Saturn (so cool!), the Moon, Alpha Centauri (the closest star to us, actually two stars), and a constellation called the jewel box. It was awesome to be able to see all those things, so in the end I was glad I went.

**Darn - I wanted to update about today too, but I'm just about out of internet time, and since I'm leaving here today, I don't want to buy more. I promise tales of mountains and football tomorrow!**

First Day in Australia!

As you all know by now, I arrived in Sydney Wednesday night without incident. My extremely heavy backpack and I checked into the hostel and after making some blog updates, I passed out. Since I was still on New Zealand time, I woke up bright and early the next day. I got up and did some laundry, then took a shower and headed out for the day.

I started by walking towards the Australia Museum. On the way, I stopped at the Anzac Memorial that is dedicated to all of the Australian troops. It had a nice little exhibit with a real personal touch to it, and it was situated in the middle of a neat park. Unfortunately, the weather was muggy and overcast - the kind of weather where you're bathed in sweat the instant you step outside (Atlantans know it well), so I was eager to get inside.

Here is the Anzac Memorial:



The Australia Museum was right up the street, and had a large sign out front for an exhibit called "Eaten Alive!", so I knew I was in the right place. They had an exhibit about Aborigines, here called Indigenous Australians. I still don't understand their mythology completely, but maybe I will before I leave - there is a lot about it in various places. A few minutes after I arrived, there was a guided tour. I joined in and we toured through a room full of various skeletons, an excellent collection of gems and minerals, a collection of bugs and animals that can kill you, and another room full of stuffed animals (like the formerly living kind, not the plush kind). So I have now felt a kangaroo, wombat, platypus (much smaller than I thought), and koala. Hopefully I'll be able to see some of them living too!

The next thing I wanted to do was to go to the Bodies exhibit. It came to Atlanta, but I missed it. If you don't know what it is, it sounds totally morbid, but it really wasn't. It's basically "plastinated" human bodies on display. Okay, I guess it is morbid. Really it was totally fascinating to see what's going on under the skin. And I swear, it was really easy to separate the idea that they were actual bodies and just focus on the interesting part.

After that, it was time to get ready for the opera! First, I was going on a sunset cruise around the harbor. Luckily, the clouds had broken, so we got a very nice sunset. I'll post some pictures in a second. I was one of two solitary people on board, but I ended up sitting with the other gentleman, who was from Saudi Arabia, but had lived in America. We had a very nice conversation. Here are some pics from the cruise:









After the cruise, it was time for the opera! I went to see The Marriage of Figaro, which I knew nothing about except that I had heard of it. It is a comedy about Figaro and Susannah, who want to get married, but the Count they work for wants Susannah for himself; meanwhile, the Count's wife wants his attention back. In the end, it all works out happily! I got in trouble for taking this picture, so I don't have any good ones of the actual opera house during the performance. Here's my ticket, bill, and a chocolate they gave me.



The performance was wonderful! It was over three hours long, but it didn't feel like it at all. I think I'm going to have to check out an opera when I'm back home.

I went back to the hostel after the opera and fell asleep quickly - I'm not sure if it was the long day or the wine I had with dinner!

Happy birthday, Dad!

I know I'm one day late, but I have a good excuse, don't I? :) <- That's my sweetest smile. Happy birthday, ya old fart!

I'm still here!

I just wanted to post a quick update so my mother will know I'm still alive. Hi Mom. :) I have had two very packed and very neat days in Sydney, but my computer's battery is about to die, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to give you the full update! I promise I will catch up tomorrow night!

Random Pictures

As you probably noticed (I know Lilia did!), there's been a whole lotta posting going on! That's because I finally have a reliable internet connection, so I'm able to catch up. It's about 8 AM here in Sydney, and I'm waiting for my laundry to get done before I head out for the day. This will be last post until at least tonight. I wanted to wrap up with some random pictures from our New Zealand trip.

My family sent me this a few days after I left. Isn't it sweet? (except for Jason, of course)



This is what my knees looked like a few days after I fell. They're still kind of purple!



Here is the tiny little part that caused all those problems in Queenstown:



And finally, and most scary, this is what happened to any fly that got in our campervan - Rebecca grabbed a book and smashed them! This one died explosively! Most of the others went quietly. In one night, she killed at least six, for which I was eternally grateful!



That's it for New Zealand - from here on out, it'll be Australia! Thanks for following along so far!

Whalewatching in Kaikoura

Our last day in New Zealand was pretty typical of our trip - wake up, drive somewhere, do something cool, drive some more.

This time, we were driving to a whalewatching tour! We boarded the boat at around 10 AM and proceeded directly to where a whale had recently been sighted. It was a bumpy ride and felt a bit like a roller coaster - we could feel our stomachs drop after each big wave. Happily, no one got sick.

We pulled up to the where the first whale had surfaced just in time to see him dive down again. The whales go down to look for food for about 45 minutes and then come up for 5 to 15 minutes. Our timing was just off. So we quickly sped over to where the other whale in the area was last seen, and he surfaced as we pulled up.

I hate to say this, but the whales were actually kind of boring. I think it's because they are sperm whales, so almost none of them comes out of the water until they dive, which is when you get to see their tails. That part was really cool. Here's what the whale looked like when he was just hanging out and breathing:



And here's what he looked like when he dove:



After he dove, we drove back around to find the other whale again, who was due to surface. We watched him for awhile and then he dove again too.

We had hoped to see some dolphins too, but on the way back to the dock they told us that the main pod was too far away. However, we were lucky enough to stumble upon another pod of dolphins. We sat for about 10 minutes and watched them. They were so cool! They jumped up and did somersaults all over the place! There were at least fifty, probably more like 100. It was impossible to get a good photo of them, but I did manage to take one where you can actually tell it's a dolphin.



Then we were back in the dock. We returned to the campervan, and since we had a little extra time, we decided to look for the seal colony that was nearby. We found it, and were able to get really close!



There was another seal not too far away rolling around in the grass, which was neat. We didn't get too close though, because there were signs all over warning people that they bite if they feel threatened.

We drove back to Christchurch and returned the van. For our last night, we were staying in a pretty decent motel. It was strange to sleep indoors, be warm, and not rock the van every time you rolled over! It was like heaven. :) Here we are at dinner on our last night:



The next morning (yesterday, Wednesday for me and Tuesday for most of you), we got up and went to the airport to leave. I was really sad to see Rebecca go home and also to leave New Zealand, but it was a really wonderful trip and I couldn't have asked for it to be much better.

Sightseeing in Christchurch

For Monday, we decided to properly explore Christchurch, and Jen and Victor (Roheryn and NZStrider) agreed to be our guides. We met them by the Chalice in the center of town. Victor's mother came along, and so did their young son, Timmy, who is a truly adorable baby. He got a lot of attention from Rebecca and me! After meeting up at the Chalice, we then went inside the cathedral. Here are pictures of each of those!





We rode the tram around, where I learned that the Chalice is meant to represent a swirl of leaves in the wind, as well as some other Christchurch history and trivia.

Next up was lunch, and then Victor volunteered to take us on a drive up to Lyttleton. Because the car was to small for everyone, Jen, Timmy, and Victor's mom stayed in the city while we went on our drive. The drive was really nice - even more so because Victor is truly a fount of knowledge about the area. He told us all kinds of trivia and history about the area and made it truly interesting. We eventually ended up at Cave Rock, down on the beach. Since the tide was low, we could walk right through it! Here are some pictures from the drive:





We went back into town and met Jen, Timmy, and Victor's mom at the Botanic Gardens. Here's a picture from just before we parted ways.



Rebecca and I headed out through the gardens and stopped at the museum, which was very well done and very interesting. There are lot of exhibits on Antarctic exploration in New Zealand, and this museum was no exception. They also had a really nice exhibit about the history of the Maori.

After wandering around for some time trying to find dinner, we eventually got fed and then returned to the campsite for our last night in the camper.

Two "Cultural Experiences"

Sunday was our first day in Christchurch, and because we were tired and unsure what to do there, we decided to have kind of a quiet day. We started out the day by walking down to the nearby mall and seeing Hot Fuzz. The movie was really funny and we both liked it a lot. I bought a new watch to replace the one I lost, and then we went back for a leisurely afternoon at the campsite. I spent most of the afternoon trying to upload pictures in vain.

That night, we went to Ko Tane and the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve. This was advertised as a "Maori Cultural Experience" (the Maori are the native people here). I think we got a lot more than we expected!

We had a Maori woman guide us through. We only had a few people in our group, and only one man, so he was chosen to be the chief. We began walking through the reserve and the guide explained the significance of some of the trees and birds to the Maori. Eventually, a Maori warrior came out and challenged our chief. They do a lot of posturing and stick out their tongues to try to evoke fear in their opponents before dropping a token (in our case, some greenery). If the visiting chief picks up the greenery, it signifies that we came in peace. If he kicks it aside, we might be eaten for dinner that night after a long battle!

We entered the village peacefully, where our chief and the Maori chief sealed their friendship with a hangi (I'm not sure if it's "a hangi" or "the hangi" or just "hangi"). This is when they shake hands and press noses and foreheads together to signify a meeting of the minds and an acknowledgement that we all share the same breath.

After this portion, we moved on to a more contemporary Maori performance. Seven or eight people performed several songs. The women got up on stage to participate in one dance, and the men (man) got up on stage to do the haka at the end (one of the Maori dances - the New Zealand rugby team does it before matches to intimidate opponents).

We proceeded inside and had a very nice buffet dinner, and then took a tour of the wildlife preserve, which was way more than we expected it to be! We saw lots of native birds, including some really active Kiwis who got very close, a territorial swan, and some Keas - one of which perched on Rebecca for awhile!



We caught a bus back to our campsite and called it a night.

Milford Sound and Queenstown

So, I believe when I last updated, our van had just been fixed after I tried to drive it over a wall. That night, we walked down into Queenstown for a bit, had dinner, and then crashed early.

The next day, we were set to go to Milford Sound, which has been called the eighth wonder of the world. We walked down into town and caught the bus. Except for having a carsick child in front of us, the bus ride was pretty enjoyable. It was nice to sit back and let someone else pick the route and manage the twisty roads. We stopped several times -

Once for a sheep crossing! We kind of hoped/feared that this would happen once, and it was kind of cool. Here's the best picture I could get from my vantage point on the bus:



We also stopped several times to take pictures. This is one of the prettiest spots - the Mirror Lakes.



After about four hours of driving, we arrived at Milford Sound and boarded the boat for our 2 hour cruise. Rebecca and I went up on deck to take some pictures and it was really astounding how beautiful it was. Gorgeous blue water, huge mountains, snowcaps in the distance...we sailed out to where the sound meets the sea and then turned around. We got quite close to a waterfall that was three times as tall as Niagara Falls, and then before we knew it, the trip was over. Here are a few pictures of what we saw - the first one is kind of washed out, but has a boat in it to try to help with scale.







We also had an unexpected benefit of seeing some seals sunning themselves on a rock, which was pretty cool.



The bus ride back was fairly uneventful, except that we saw the moon for the first time since we arrived in New Zealand. I'm not sure why we kept missing it even on clear nights - probably a combination of early setting and the mountains - but it was nice to see it again.

The next day was going to be our adventure day. We wanted to go jet boating and bungy jumping, but it worked out that we could only do one, so jet boating won out. We actually met some people from Snellville and Doraville while we waited in line! Here's a picture of me next to the Shotover River before we got on:



And here's a picture Rebecca took of the boat before us:



The driver got us extremely close to the canyon walls before veering off to do 360 degree turns (we even did one 720!). It was really exhilirating and I highly recommend it!

That was the end of Queenstown for us. We hopped back into the car to go to Christchurch. One last picture for today - we drove through Cromwell on our way to Christchurch, and they had this giant sculpture of fruit as you drove through. I just had to share!

Just a quick update!

Rebecca and I are waiting for our international flights here in the Auckland airport, and I just wanted to take a second to say hello, and yes we're still here. :) I'm hoping it will be a little easier to update from Australia, but we'll see. I promise to catch up on the last few days as soon as I can! Hope everyone is doing well. Our flights leave in about three hours - Rebecca's to LA and mine to Sydney. It's going to be weird to be traveling alone - I know I'll miss having Rebecca here. She won't see this until she gets back, so I just want to say - it's been really great. I'm glad we could do this together!!!

I do dumb things, part 2.

The internet is being a major pain today, so I'm having a lot of trouble uploading any pics, but for the time being, I thought I would at least tell you about my latest moronic activity!

The first dumb thing I did this trip was attempting to hop over a log and falling on my face - I took a lovely picture of my knees that I hope to post later. They are still a beautiful shade of purple. I also lost my watch that day - I suspect it's on the ground near where we parked - but I'll consider that a corollary dumb thing to the main one of falling down.

The second dumb thing I did was...wait for it...try to drive over a wall. Okay, so I didn't really try to drive over it, and it was only about 18 inches high, but it was still dumb. Here's the story...

Rebecca and I arrived at the Queenstown campsite after a really nice afternoon at Deer Park. We checked in and proceeded to try to find our campsite. The site maps are kind of hit-and-miss, and more often that not we end up in the wrong place, which is what happened this time. I started to turn a corner to get back to where we needed to be and hear a horrendous screeching sound. I stopped immediately - with that sick feeling you get when you know you've really messed up - and Rebecca looked out her window and informed me that I had run over a wall! I had turned the corner too tightly, not seeing such a low wall from my high vantage point, and gotten stranded on top of this wall!

At first, it didn't look too bad. There was no external damage to the side of the van and it looked as if a bolt had simply come loose. I had pushed the water tank up and dislodged the piece that held it to the bottom of the chassis. It looked like all we would have to do is hook it back on. Of course, nothing is ever that easy.

We both tried to lift it back into place, but it wasn't budging. Eventually, two Australian men came over and helped us out - informing us that the piece was bent and we would need a shifter or a spanner (one of those is a wrench, not sure what the other one is). Eventually, one of the Aussies took me to a car repair place, where a very nice Kiwi unbent the part. Then we went to buy some wrenches, and returned to the van, where everything was finally put back together.

I took a picture to show you what an inconspicuous little piece this was, but I can't seem to upload it, so I'll save it for next time. We were very lucky that it wasn't worse though - there is no way the campervan people will realize that anything went wrong, and in the end it cost $10 to buy a wrench to fix what could have been a major problem!

I'll do my best to update on Milford Sound tomorrow - I really want to get pictures up because it's just such a spectacular place! Today we're having a quiet day, with a "Maori cultural experience" tonight, and then tomorrow we're exploring Christchurch, hopefully with Jen (Roheryn) and Victor (NZStrider) for at least part of the day.

Getting to Queenstown and Deer Park

We were really glad we didn't make the drive to Queenstown in the dreariness of Wednesday, because Thursday came up crystal clear and beautiful. We were back on the road, driving through some spectacular mountains. Here is one example of the scenery as we got close to Queenstown:



Beautiful, right? That's totally typical, and the picture doesn't even really do it justice. Just when you think New Zealand couldn't possibly be more beautiful, you turn the corner and it proves you wrong.

We pulled into Queenstown in the early afternoon and decided to check out Deer Park Heights. The sign said it was a "working deer farm", but we saw llamas, goats, deer, and donkeys as we drove through. In additon to being a working farm, it is also where many of the scenes from Rohan were shot for LotR.

I forgot to upload a recognizable movie location picture - sorry about that - but I do have some great pics from the Feed Station at the park. Here's what it looked like when we pulled up. Notice the expectant looks on the animals' faces. They know that some suckers have arrived to feed them! And yes, they are running over towards the van. The barrel on the left dispenses food for visitors to give to the animals.



We got some food, and it got crazy! The goats jumped all over us and also bleated to each other across the fields to come running! Rebecca and I both got dirty from the goats pawing us!





And Rebecca's favorite, the llamas:



We left the park and went to check in at the campervan site. Here I had my first (and only!) "incident" with driving the van, but I'll have to leave you in suspense because I'm out of online time. I'll just tell you that thanks to two very nice Aussies and an awesome Kiwi, everything turned out okay in the end! That was yesterday - today we went to Milford Sound, so I promise some awesome pictures!

More pictures and glaciers!

I went back and added pictures to the Wellington post and the Nelson post, scroll down to check them out!

After leaving Nelson early in the morning, we drove for about 7 hours down the west coast and finally arrived at the Fox Glacier. The website (at least to my recollection) for the tour we went on said we would take a pleasant walk through the forest, climb some stairs cut into the glacier, and enjoy 40 minutes on the ice. HA! The pleasant walk was actually a steep set of stairs up the side of a mountain, up a 12 step ladder, up some more, back down, and then out onto the glacier. Quite a bit more rugged than expected! Still, we made it and it was well worth it. The glacier really is like nothing else. I guess I expected it to be like hard packed snow, but it is definitely ice. Here are a few pictures:



That doesn't even begin to show you how tall this thing was. It goes all the way back into the mountains (you can kind of see where it begins in the top of the picture). The guide said it was about 5 km from the beginning to the end - almost all up or down stairs!

And here we are, triumphant after our "pleasant walk":



It started to rain while we were on the glacier, so we got soaked (again!). However, not too much longer later, we were back on the road to Queenstown. Eventually, the road forced us to stop in Haast, which is where I made my last post. The next day, we rose early and got back on the road (more in the next post).

Lots o' driving and a huge block of ice!

We're in another campsite tonight. We got up very early (the alarm started going off at 4!) and left Susan's at 5 AM, headed for Fox Glacier. We drove for about 7 hours before arriving. It was a rough morning, and suddenly all the signs New Zealand has everywhere about not driving while tired weren't quite as funny anymore! (Examples: Drink/Drive/Don't be stupid. STOP! and Take a Power Nap. Drowsy drivers are dead drivers!) Some of them are very unintentionally funny, but not so much when I seriously wanted my own power nap this morning.) In any case, we arrived at the glacier without incident, although it did start raining again on the way down. Hopefully it will be nice and clear tomorrow for the rest of the drive - I really want to see the Southern Alps in all their glory.

The campsite we're at is somewhat rural and has internet kiosks instead of wireless, so I can't upload pictures, and there's no way I can do justice to today without posting pictures, so I'll wait to describe it. In short, we walked a very long way up and down a mountain and then out onto the glacier for a bit. It was an unforgettable experience, and when I post pics tomorrow, you'll see what I mean. :)

(Susan - we had a great time at your house! Thanks again! We tried to stop in Makorora, but the weather and the dark wouldn't let us get all the way there - we're in Haast instead. Definitely going to have a good look around as we pass through it tomorrow!)

Lovely Nelson in the South Island!

After the ferry ride over to the South Island, we got back on the roads and on our way to Nelson, home of Susan (Estelwyn). She very kindly offered to let us stay with her for the night, and Rebecca and I are both excited to be sleeping indoors! Woohoo!

The drive was very beautiful, although I did notice a lot of logging activity that made the hills slightly less pretty. We've been graced with beautiful weather again today, and the drive was enjoyable. We stopped for a quick lunch at The Clansman (as in Scottish) in Havelock before arriving in Nelson and meeting up with Susan. She met us at her lovely house and we went out the World of Wearable Art, which was really cool! Basically, New Zealand has a big event every year where people make this wearable art! Check out the link for last year's winner. It was really cool! After that we took Susan's dog to the beach and walked around for a bit. I am just so happy to have beautiful weather - it really makes a ton of difference!

Now we're back at Susan's and she and her partner (who is also very lovely) are making dinner while Rebecca and I are being rude and not helping, instead taking advantage of the internet. (Thanks again, Susan, it was so nice of you to host us!) Tomorrow we are going to drive down the west coast and go on a glacier tour, which should be another really awesome day!

Here we are after dinner: (Carrie, Susan, Rebecca, me)

Three days in Wellington

We've spent the last three days in Wellington, which is a charming city. I already wrote a bit about Saturday, when we visited Wellington for the first time and saw some of the exhibits at Te Papa.

The weather was still nasty up on Sunday morning. Rebecca and I woke up early and got ready to meet Jennifer (Leggylass), who was graciously coming to pick us up. We were out on the curb at 9 AM, discussing how dead the campsite was, when we received a message from Jennifer making sure we knew about daylight savings time. It was actually only 8! We killed time until 9, and then Jennifer showed us the LotR sites of Wellington.

She took us to the quarry where Helm's Deep and Minas Tirith were filmed, although it was hard to make out where anything was. Then we went out to where Rivendell was filmed and also to the gardens of Isengard. It's crazy that all these things were filmed just outside of Wellington - they look like they are in the middle of nowhere in the movie! We drove up Mount Victoria a bit and then out to Miramar, which is where Weta is located. We drove by a pier where the Ventura (the boat from King Kong) is docked until they decided to sink it for a tourist attraction. We drove past a few other places of LotR significance (Chocolate Fish cafe, for one) and then returned to the Embassy theater to see Fellowship of the Ring. I haven't watched any of the movies in over a year, so it was very enjoyable to see one again, especially in that theater (where Return of the King had its world premiere).

Here are a few pictures. A bit of explanation - around the time Return of the King came out, the Embassy theater "sold" its seats and put little plaques on each of them to show who bought them. Here's the one that the theonering.net discussion board members bought:



And here's Rebecca sitting in Orlando's chair:



And finally, here's Rebecca and Jen:



After the movie, Jennifer went home and Rebecca and I went back to Te Papa while we waited for Alyssa (Choice of Luthien) to get off work at 6. She finally did and we had a good dinner at a place called One Red Dog (but terrible service). Unfortunately, we spaced and didn't get a picture with Alyssa this time. :( We took the bus back to the campsite and were both in bed within about 10 minutes of returning!

Monday morning arrived crisp and clear! What a relief to finally have some nice weather! Today we were meeting Daniel Falconer for lunch. We took the bus out to Miramar, arriving a bit too early, and had a very enjoyable and very quick lunch with Daniel before he had to return to work. He was very nice and aplogetic about not being able to show us anything, but that was okay.

Here we are with Daniel:



We did the tourist thing and wandered around a bit, and found this in the concrete outside Weta:



We went back into Wellington and did some shopping before taking the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens, which were very beautiful. Tired again, we took the bus back to the campsite just in time to receive word from Joanne (Eledhwen), who also happened to be in Wellington. We got back on the bus and met up with her for dinner at a wonderful restaurant recommended by Susan (Estelwyn) called Nicolini's, which was fantastic!

Here we are at dinner:



After dinner, we went back to the campsite again and went to bed.

This morning we got up early again to catch the ferry to the South Island. The weather has been beautiful again today and the ferry ride was excellent! Now we're in Nelson, which I'll make a separate post about shortly.