We were much quicker off the mark this morning and after our free brek we were packed up, checked out and in the car by 8.30 and on the road to Wellington, NZ's capital city. Today's drive was quite a bit longer though and so we didn't arrive until 2pm. We then had some trouble finding somewhere we could park the car until morning but eventually that was all sorted and we were strolling along Oriental Parade alongside the water hunting a spot of lunch.
Once fed we got a few supplies and then got on with exploring the city. We had heard great things about the city's large museum, Te Papa, so that was our first stop. I decreed that I was done with learning about the Treaty of Whaitangi and so we skipped that bit and went straight to the section on volcanos and earth quakes, especially relevant following our visit to Napier. The museum is excellent; huge, varied, entertaining and interactive and we had lots of fun before museum fatigue hit and we decided to get a taste of another side of city culture.
Our next stop was therefore the Mac's brewery to sample their offer.
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After wetting our whistle we made another attempt at exploring and so went up to civic square and took in their jollyly decorated central library.
Before succumbing to the draw of Matterhorn, a bar the rough guide described as "eternally cool", which also happened to be up this end of town. This then lead to visits to "Hummingbird" and the "Malthouse". All three bars were unique and stylish; the first bar had a minimalist Scandinavian air, the second a luxoriously jivey buzz and the last had an earthy feel where we sampled some local brews. This is the first time we had been out for Friday night drinks since being away and we had such a fun time.
We went back to the hostel to drunkenly cook ourselves a healthy dinner and prepare a packed lunch for the next day. Then we set ourselves a horribly early 5.30am wake up call for the next morning and rolled into bed.
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