We didn’t technically stay in Wellington, but in a small town North of it, on the beach. The kind of place where you could spend 4 weeks reading books on the beach or in our room with seaview.
Instead what we did was phone all banks that my cards needed to be blocked and we visited certain institutions to get me a temporary drivers licence and a new bank card. Luckily I had taken out all my Dutch licences and cards and my passport was in another bag, so I didn’t have to deal with overseas banks. And it was amazing how smoothly I got everything replaced.
So with that off my chest we went to explore Welly. I loooooved the city, it is so much more a city than Chch, with highrise buildings and a seaside promenade and an actual bustling living shopping street. However, it was also windy if not stormy, and it gets its fair share of earthquakes too.
Parliament
Civic square
It was New Year’s Eve and after seeing most of the sights we had dinner and started wandering about the 3 stages with music celebrations and fire artists (not very good, they dropped the fire stuff very often).
Close to midnight everyone started counting down 10! 9! 8! … 3! 2!!! 1!!!!!!!!! Happy New Year!!!!!
Ehm…
Eh ??
Eh, eh, hmm …
Fireworks?
Nothing. A Brit next to us said „F***** Wellington! Let’s see, we still have 3 hours to fly to Sydney, I bet THEY have fireworks! F***!”
Later we learned that the city of Wellington had decided for a more relaxed, quiet New Year’s Eve. No fireworks and no alcohol. Luckily we had smuggled 250 ml bubbles into the liquor ban zone and managed to drink it before the police came around with their flashlights checking everyone out.
Nevertheless, we had a good time, the music was nice and no matter what it was summer.
January 1st we went to the “New Zealand Museum” Te Papa.
Te Papa is HUGE. It explains NZ geology (including a 5.1 earthquake simulation which was nowhere near a real earthquake, as all Chch people agreed), nature, Maori, Europeans, Immigration (including the game “would Immigration NZ let YOU in? We scored “yes”), and currently an exhibition “European Masters” which was overpriced and from the Staedel Museum in Frankfurt, and we had a suspicion that we would sooner or later be in Frankfurt itself to see it. But nevertheless the Te Papa is totally awesome.
After Welly we drove to Napier. On the way we encountered a car museum with an incredible amount of incredible cars.
However we learned that there is a bird (gannet) colony nearby (arguably the only/largest colony on main-land in the world) and so we hiked there and back.
The birds were nice and the walk along the beach (tide dependent!) as well. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go cheese and wine tasting afterwards, but we did do honeytasting which was cool. Hanging out at the honeybar …
We drove on to Taupo where we stayed with friends of Thomas from his time in Bhutan. They took us to arguably the most beautiful waterfalls of NZ and a hydro-plan dam thing that spews water 3 times a day into a gorge which was impressive to see. We also went to Rotorua for a day and saw “thermal wonderland” which admittedly was impressive, but also outrageously expensive (although we got in for free with tickets from our friends).
Let’s just say that some people who own certain pieces of land for specific reasons might sometimes get a little crazy. Although it is also the Egyptian water bottle issue. When some silly tourist is willing to pay an insanely high price, prices in general will go up. We kept encountering tourists who said “Oh my god! Skydiving/bungee jumping/thermal wonderland was sooo fabulous! It was VERY EXPENSIVE, but you know, it’s, like, a once in a lifetime experience! It’s like so totally worth it!”. No, it’s not, it’s just silly.
In Rotorua we mostly saw the old bathhouse which is now a museum and again a very good one. Their 6.1 earthquake simulation was very real. They even warned all people from Chch! I thought that was nice.
Next time on to some serious hiking in Tongariro and arguably the most chaotic canoe-trip ever.
Instead what we did was phone all banks that my cards needed to be blocked and we visited certain institutions to get me a temporary drivers licence and a new bank card. Luckily I had taken out all my Dutch licences and cards and my passport was in another bag, so I didn’t have to deal with overseas banks. And it was amazing how smoothly I got everything replaced.
So with that off my chest we went to explore Welly. I loooooved the city, it is so much more a city than Chch, with highrise buildings and a seaside promenade and an actual bustling living shopping street. However, it was also windy if not stormy, and it gets its fair share of earthquakes too.
Parliament
Civic squareIt was New Year’s Eve and after seeing most of the sights we had dinner and started wandering about the 3 stages with music celebrations and fire artists (not very good, they dropped the fire stuff very often).
Close to midnight everyone started counting down 10! 9! 8! … 3! 2!!! 1!!!!!!!!! Happy New Year!!!!!Ehm…
Eh ??
Eh, eh, hmm …
Fireworks?
Nothing. A Brit next to us said „F***** Wellington! Let’s see, we still have 3 hours to fly to Sydney, I bet THEY have fireworks! F***!”
Later we learned that the city of Wellington had decided for a more relaxed, quiet New Year’s Eve. No fireworks and no alcohol. Luckily we had smuggled 250 ml bubbles into the liquor ban zone and managed to drink it before the police came around with their flashlights checking everyone out.
Nevertheless, we had a good time, the music was nice and no matter what it was summer.
January 1st we went to the “New Zealand Museum” Te Papa.
Te Papa is HUGE. It explains NZ geology (including a 5.1 earthquake simulation which was nowhere near a real earthquake, as all Chch people agreed), nature, Maori, Europeans, Immigration (including the game “would Immigration NZ let YOU in? We scored “yes”), and currently an exhibition “European Masters” which was overpriced and from the Staedel Museum in Frankfurt, and we had a suspicion that we would sooner or later be in Frankfurt itself to see it. But nevertheless the Te Papa is totally awesome.After Welly we drove to Napier. On the way we encountered a car museum with an incredible amount of incredible cars.
Napier was destroyed by a large earthquake in 1932. They rebuild it Art Deco style. It is nice, but you‘ve seen it in a half day. 
Thomas found a new girlfriend there
Thomas found a new girlfriend thereHowever we learned that there is a bird (gannet) colony nearby (arguably the only/largest colony on main-land in the world) and so we hiked there and back.
The birds were nice and the walk along the beach (tide dependent!) as well. Unfortunately we didn’t have time to go cheese and wine tasting afterwards, but we did do honeytasting which was cool. Hanging out at the honeybar …We drove on to Taupo where we stayed with friends of Thomas from his time in Bhutan. They took us to arguably the most beautiful waterfalls of NZ and a hydro-plan dam thing that spews water 3 times a day into a gorge which was impressive to see. We also went to Rotorua for a day and saw “thermal wonderland” which admittedly was impressive, but also outrageously expensive (although we got in for free with tickets from our friends).
Let’s just say that some people who own certain pieces of land for specific reasons might sometimes get a little crazy. Although it is also the Egyptian water bottle issue. When some silly tourist is willing to pay an insanely high price, prices in general will go up. We kept encountering tourists who said “Oh my god! Skydiving/bungee jumping/thermal wonderland was sooo fabulous! It was VERY EXPENSIVE, but you know, it’s, like, a once in a lifetime experience! It’s like so totally worth it!”. No, it’s not, it’s just silly.In Rotorua we mostly saw the old bathhouse which is now a museum and again a very good one. Their 6.1 earthquake simulation was very real. They even warned all people from Chch! I thought that was nice.
Next time on to some serious hiking in Tongariro and arguably the most chaotic canoe-trip ever.
