Wellington

We reluctantly left the lovely luxurious Tongariro Château, got back in the van and travelled south to a town called Paraparaumu. One of the longest town names I have ever come across, it took us at least 3 days to actually pronounce it correctly! After finding a perfect beach to park up for the night, we met Ian and Aly who had taken the train down earlier that day. Our reason to stay in Paraparaumu was to take a trip over to Kapiti Island. Our first glimpse of the island was superb- we watched the sun set over it.

We had booked our trip to the island and found ourselves with a free day in between..so instead of spending the day in Paraparaumu (which didn´t sound too thrilling) we decided to take the train to nearby Wellington. After a mad dash for the 40 minute train ride, we had a great day exploring the capital city. The buildings were all fascinating- especially the Beehive, which looks exactly like its namesake, but is actually a very busy office!

The surrounding government buildings were all worth a look too! We also visited stunning old St Paul's cathedral which was completely Gothic- it had magnificent stained glass windows and it almost felt like we were in an old boat!

We stopped for a well deserved sushi break at lunch which was lovely..and then walked on to the gorgeous botanical gardens. There is actually a cable car to take you up to the gardens (most people get the cable car up and walk down) however we walked up and grabbed the cable car for the trip down! The gardens were beautiful and also had some very interesting sculptures! I also found my favourite pohutakawa tree which was blooming red!!

Next stop was the harbour which has proved to be the most memorable part of the day. So we were walking around the harbour admiring the water, the buildings behind and the boats..and we spot some baby ducks! There were a lovely little family of 5 ducklings and the mother bobbing around on the water. We watched as the ducklings tried to catch up with their mother who was on the other side of the harbour. Suddenly it was like we were in a nature programme, as danger appeared in the shape of a very large seagull. It swooped down to the baby ducks and grabbed one in its mouth! We were in complete shock and couldn´t quite believe what we were witnessing here. The baby struggled and managed to fall back into the water. Good. Oh no, but the seagull wasn't giving up..he snatched the baby again and this time flew off with the little one in his mouth. It was horrible, we were powerless and just had to watch nature take its course. I felt like David Attenborough! About 5 minutes after this horrific incident a much happier thing happened..we saw our first Little Blue Penguin!! He was swimming around in the harbour and popped up to say hello!! Amazing! We were actually in some kind of wildlife documentary I swear!

After all the excitement at the harbour, we made our way to the museum, Te Papa. It is a great museum showing New Zealand´s history and culture. And its free! And it had really comfy sofas! (where Chris and I may have had a little nap!)