Wellington

With much better weather on Tuesday, we drove into Wellington. We were both struck by how similar it is to Seattle, down to the hills (with fewer houses), the public art (waves and fish) and the counterculture (think Capitol Hill). If we weren't driving on the left, I could have been convinced that we were in our home city. Because of this, Kerrie felt particularly awkward, as if we should know our way around and be dressed like the locals.

We spent most of our time at the Te Papa museum, which is New Zealand's national museum. It had a nice combination of exhibits, with part of the museum dedicated to natural history, including both the basic geology and displays of native flora and fauna, and part cultural history, including a display of Kiwi art from the past 60 years.

Wellington is a beautiful and vibrant city, but we were both too eager to see the country's natural scenery to give it a fair shake. After not fully enjoying the outdoors because of rainy travel days, neither of us felt like being in a city. We may stop again on the way back to Auckland and Kerrie is already calculating the time and money we'd spend on a short trip from Seattle to Wellington!

At the end of the second day, we boarded the ferry to Picton, the port at the north end of the south island. The trip was a relaxing three hours and neither of us felt the slightest bit seasick. The view from the boat was outstanding and I took more than 80 pictures on the ride over, most of them at the end as we were gliding through the sound that protects Picton.

(Kerrie contributed significantly to the writing of this post.)