Journeying South

After New Year we bade farewell to Mike and Brenda and set off south once again stopping off at Taupo for the night and making use of Mike and Brenda's lovely house there (thank you very much Mike and Brenda).
It was a very brief stop in Taupo but we managed to go out and see the Aratiatia Rapids (the outlet gate of the dam opens every couple of hours and floods the dry valley) which are quite spectacular and also managed a swim in the lake - very refreshing!
A quick overnight visit to Jill and Peter in Marton and then it was off to Palmerston North to drop off the hire car.  Andrew managed to see us for about 2 minutes!  Then it was off to the big smoke of the capital city of Wellington on the bus.
In Wellington we were lucky enough to be offered the use of a house for 3 nights.

Day 1 in Wellington saw us walking the Skyline Trail on the hills above.  The weather was OK and the views were lovely but it was blowing a gale and we were almost blown off our feet on more than one occasion.

Following this we went on a very interesting 1 hour tour of the New Zealand parliament, commonly called the Beehive because of its shape.  We learnt all about base isolators there (rubber and metal shock absorbers that the building stands on to withstand earthquakes).  We also popped in to the National Archives to see the original Treaty of Waitangi of 1840 (I think) On day 2 we visited Te Papa museum.  This is completely free and tells the story of New Zealand's history and culture.  It certainly requires more than a day to see it all.  Having been 'museumed out' we went on the Wellington Cable Car and visited - you've guessed - the Cable Car Museum!

On Saturday 8 January we got up early, caught the train to the city and then the ferry over to the South Island.
This is the most amazing ferry journey.  It lasts 3 hours - the first hour is leaving Wellington harbour, the second hour is crossing the Cook Strait (which can be very rough, but thankfully wasn't) and the final hour is spent cruising through the Marlborough Sounds to Picton.  The scenery is spectacular - nothing like the English Channel - and we even saw a pod of dolphins.
On arrival in Picton we caught the bus to Richmond via Nelson and spent an enjoyable few days with Sandra and Barry.  Carol has been writing to Sandra since she was 10 years old.  She is the niece of Carol's mum's penfriend and they've been writing since 1944!