We've arrived to the South Island! After 3 nights in Wellington we hopped on the ferry and made the 3 hour journey to the South Island landing us in Picton. It's a beautiful ferry ride especially if you're lucky enough to catch a sunset on the cruise. Our 2 1/2 days in Wellington weren't particularly exciting apart from the fact we finally got some sunshine! We spent our first day soaking in the sunshine on Cuba Street a hip little section of Wellington with a bohemian feel filled with funky shops, street art, cafes and restaurants. After a quick stop for a drink in the sun we continued to the harbour front. The harbour front offered street art, bike rentals, and pubs galore. We were happy to tuck in for lunch at a brewery, one of the few places we've come across in New Zealand that seemed to know anything about the beer they served. They throw the word 'craft beer' around a lot but when you ask about the beers all they can tell you is that they're brown. Our approach to combat this is to simply try them all throughout our journey. After lunch our hopes of a sunny afternoon were dashed as the clouds moved in so we decided to head to the Te Papa Museum, located next to the pub. We entered fully expecting to pay $30.00 each but were delighted to learn it's completely free! Te Papa is a really well curated museum with exhibitions on Maori art, Kiwi Culture, natural history and 2 special exhibitions one of volcanoes and one on Gallipoli. We're starting to see a trend with the Volcano exhibitions,each offering pamphlets on how to prepare for an eruption because it's a real concern here! Not something we worry about in the Great North. The Gallipoli exhibition impressed us the most, taking us through the history of the war with letters and voice recordings from Kiwi soldiers. This combined with several impactful large scaled sculptures made it a really emotional and educational experience. I found it even more interesting because I recently visited Turkey with a stop in Gallipoli and ANZAC Cove. Today when you visit this area in Turkey it's filled with war memorials and graveyards where New Zealanders, Australians and Turkish soldiers are buried together. Over 130 000 total lives lost between April 25 1915 and January 09 1916. Each side had their own reasoning for the battle so it was interesting to read the letters in the Te Papa exhibition from NZ soldiers commenting on how they couldn't blame the Turks for protecting their land to the death. The Turkish military was well trained and well positioned on higher ground making the war an incredibly difficult battle and so deadly. After several hours in Te Papa we took an extremely overpriced taxi, note to self use Uber next time, back to our motorhome. We decided to stay at a Freedom site at Evans Bay Marina because it was only an 8 minute drive (or $22.00 taxi ride) from the city centre. The noise, street lights and wind that came with this location probably weren't worth it in the end however. Our second day in Wellington we were thrilled to see the sun again and decided to head out to the Wellington Zoo. It's located very near to the city centre and as a result has no parking of it's own. Driving an RV around Wellingtons narrow curvy streets is bad enough made only worse when you're also trying to find decent parking. In the end we did find a spot and walked up to the zoo. It's a really nice zoo with lots of local rescued wildlife to view. They also had a small Australia section where wallabies and an emu roamed freely with visitors. We really enjoyed the group of Chimps which we caught just in time for their afternoon snack. They also had some big cats, sun bears and various tons of various types of monkeys. We also got another chance to see rescued kiwi birds which had their own private nocturnal sanctuary to run around undisturbed by visitors. After 3 noisy nights we were more than ready to head South and out of the city. Our ferry was delayed a couple hours so we got in around 8pm, in the dark. Not wanting to pay money for the night we attempted the nearest freedom spot to find it was already full. Continuing onward we decided to attempt a site that had many reviews calling it difficult to find but we figured why not try. Turned out this meant driving down several small back roads which led to a pot hole riddled dirt road which led to a wetland reserve. We managed to find what seemed to be a parking spot with no concept where the heck we were. We were rewarded for our efforts with a sky full of stars and lots of privacy. The next morning we woke up to the sound of several fishermen making their way down the dirt road discovering we were near the ocean! We liked it here so much we decided to stay an extra night and chill on the beach that day. After a chill day on the beach we headed to Kaikoura to another freedom spot that suggested to be near a seal colony. Was it ever! We drove in and parked only a 5 meters away from several seals and this is where we spent the night. During the afternoon we got some great pictures of the seals but mostly just sat back and relaxed with them. The Seals mostly slept the afternoon away with the youngsters splashing and playing in a shallow pool nearby. Seems like a nice life expect when they're woken up by pesky tourists who, one after the other, decide they want a selfie and get way too close. Your camera has a zoom on it for a reason, don't disturb the wildlife. The day passed by and we settled in for the night. It was very peaceful until a seal thought 1 am was a good time to sing a bass solo of belly grunting and sneezing outside our door. We woke the next morning to discover this seal had decided the bushes a foot from our camper was the perfect spot to sleep and sneeze all night. We said goodbye to our new seal friends and carried on to Kaikoura town to see about some whale watching. As we drove into town the clouds got more and more ominous until we found ourselves in a downpour. We booked a 10am whale watching tour for tomorrow morning and decided today would be a good day to pay for a camp site, charge up, take a much needed shower and hunker down for the day. The weather is meant to clear over night so we're keeping our fingers crossed for tomorrow!
1 Comment
Ian
10/8/2016 04:49:07 pm
Looks like a pretty fantastic time!
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