Tuesday 27th July - Picton - Wellington
Although we had to be at the ferry terminal at 9am we didn't drive on board until 9 .45am, so sat on the tarmac for 45 minutes. Our fears of a rough crossing (due to the overnight wind and rain) disappeared as the clouds gave way to the sun. In total the crossing from South to North Island took 3 hours - a smooth crossing with the scenery a little different to the English Channel on the way to France. The first hour with small mountains on each side, before reaching open seas. Usually there is a glut of motels on a certain street of a town or city we get to, but this was not the case in Wellington. On the 3rd motel we looked at we got lucky with it only being about 20 minutes walk from the city centre. The motels are dearer here making last night's accomdation in Picton with the harbour view seem evem more of a bargain. This place seems to have forgotten to put seats in so we can watch the telly - only a couple of slopey old beds to make do with! We phoned Lan Chile Airlines to change our flight to Santiago. We managed to get one 5 days earlier so were happy with that. Also brought forward our Beunos Aires flight to have more time in Argentina . Walked to town for a walk around and back to our motel for a jar of 'Thai Curry' though if the label hadn't said it we wouldn't have known!

Wednesday 28th July - Wellington
Didn't rush to get up this morning - Strolled into the city centre to go to the Te Papa Museum. Wellington is the culture capital of NZ with opera, theatres, etc. It's got what look like buses than run on overhead power lines - but they're not trams. Te Papa had the usual museum mix of culture, history and exhibitions of both NZ and Maori culture. Interestingly, we found out that the kiwi fruit actually originates from China! Derek managed to crack both his shins on a camouflaged wooden seat in one of the exhibitions - Sue gave him no sympathy despite the fact it was very painful! When we came out Sue was feeling peckish so we re-acquainted ourselves with Coyotes cafe that we'd been to in Christchurch. We were thinking about going to the cinema until the arrival of rain made us scarper home early.