Not so windy Wellington

We arrived at the Dwellington, Wellington thinking that we had only one Night and that we were leaving in the morning. The man at the desk enlightened us to the fact we had actually booked two nights and had the following day free to explore!

The hostel was very noisy and it was a bit of a rubbish night sleep but we got up early ready to explore. The weather was spectacular, blue cloudless skies. We once again questioned whether it was winter or not! 

We wandered down to the harbour side, and fell in love with Wellington. There were lots of little restaurants and bars, lots of families with children on bikes. Lots of runners, joggers and walkers. The sun was shining off the water and buskers were playing in the street. 

Lots of plaques and statues

Dotting the harbour side 

Amy found her mooring point 

We wandered through a buzzing food market with little trucks serving bratwurst, Mexican food, pies, ice cream and crepes. 

A bustling veg market topped it all off. 

We sat down at a beach to plan our day

And took a few pictures

We set off for Te Papa, Wellingtons main museum. The building was vast, the first thing we stumbled across was an exhibition dedicated to the Anzac effort in Gallipoli. It was absolutely incredible. They had larger than life sized wax models of soldiers and nurses. The detail so remarkable, Madame Tussaud's has absolutely nothing on these models. The story was really interesting, something Amy and I heard a lot about in Vanuath but never actually knew the details. Definitely a must see if you're in Wellington. 

The museum was full of lots of different exhibitions. About wildlife, about Maori culture, how New Zealand has evolved and one about contraception!

We had to take a lunch break in the middle of the museum trip as we felt we weren't fully appreciating the exploring due to our hunger. The picnic spot was lovely, looking over the water, but the food ddint quite satisfy. We headed to the food market from earlier to indulge in a bit of pudding. Amy had a crepe and I had some ice cream (you wouldn't know it was winter) 

After our second jaunt in the museum we headed to the Wellington cable car

Up to the botanic gardens with a really nice view of the city 

We wandered through the gardens down to the city streets to attempt to walk up mount victoria before the sun set. The walk was steeper than we expected taking slightly longer than we expected. But we made it and it was definitely worth it. 

I found some gluten free cookies!

Just as the sun hid behind the hill 

We went back down and bumped into some friends (such a small world) it was really nice to catch up as they had come up from South Island. Whilst we'd come down from the north. We could swap stories and give each other advice about where's best to go and what is worth spending money on. 

We headed out for dinner that evening. Wanting to make the most of the huge array of restaurants and cuisine available. 

We had an amazing and huge dinner of steak, potato Rosti with coleslaw, not missing out on the New Zealand wine. 

Tomorrow we head for the South Island. Apparently there's a lot of snow! The ferry crossing in the morning looks set to be a rocky one! Hopefully we don't lose our sea legs.