As Wellington is the first real city we’ve visited (excepting Auckland, since we really just landed there and left), we thought we’d do some real city-stuff. We started the day off by visiting Te Papa (Our Place in the language of the Maori), New Zealands national museum. Between us we’ve visited a good number of museums, and we agree: Te Papa is one of the really good ones. We spent a large part of the day there, visiting exhibitions about The Enormous Squid, Earthquakes in New Zealand, The history of European-Maori relations and more.

AK in front of Te Papa

Lunch was spent on one of Wellingtons hip cafés (good coffee, as promised by Lonely Planet), followed by a stroll in the city while enjoying an ice cream. AK bought some crap CDs (her own words) to play while driving. We then decided to visit the world famous Wellington Zoo. That visit became one of historys shortest zoo-visits, since the place closed just 45 minutes after we got there. We were really effective though, so we got through most of it (Chimps are cool!).

Is it a good idea to scare the Emu?

We finished our day in Wellington with a trip up to Mt. Victoria. This small mountain in the middle of the city has a great view, if we knew where it was I’m sure we would have seen Ryans house from there.

On the top of Mt Victoria

We spent the evening with Ryan and Lee, having dinner and watching the movie Zero Effect. Thanks a lot for letting us stay with you guys, you are wonderful hosts!

Our hosts Ryan and Lee.

We have an early start tomorrow since we’re on an early ferry to the south island, so now It’s time to go to sleep. Good night everyone.

AK: I want it on record that I got up at 09:30!

*

Norwegian:

AH: Søndag morgen startet veldig bra med kaffe laget av Lee, og etter at AK til slutt kom seg opp dro vi ut for å utforske New Zealands hovedstad.

Siden Wellington er den første skikkelige byen vi har besøkt (vi ekskluderer Auckland siden vi egentlig bare landet der og forlot stedet), tenkte vi vi skulle gjøre noen skikkelige by-greier. Vi startet med et besøk på Te Papa (Vårt Sted på Maorienes språk), New Zealands nasjonalmuseum. Mellom oss har vi besøkt ganske mange museer, og vi er enige: Te Papa er et av de absolutt beste. Vi brukte en stor del av dagen vår her og besøkte utstillinger om den enorme blekkspruten, jordskjelv i New Zealand, historien om forholdet mellom Maoriene og europeerene med mer.

Lunsj ble inntatt på en av Wellingtons hippe kaféer (god kaffe som lovet av Lonely Planet), fulgt av en liten vandring i bygatene mens vi spiste is. AK kjøpte noen crappy CD’er (hennes egne ord) for å spille i bilen. Vi besluttet etter dette å besøke den verdensberømte Wellington Zoo. Det besøket ble ett av verdenshistoriens korteste dyrehage-besøk, da stedet stengte kun 45 minutter etter at vi kom dit. Vi var veldig effektive dog, så vi kom igjennom det meste av det (Sjimpanser er kule!).

Vi avsluttet vår dag i Wellington med en tur opp på Mt. Victoria. Dette lille fjellet midt i byen har en fantastisk utsikt, så hvis vi visste hvor det var er jeg sikker på at vi ville ha sett huset til Ryan derfra. Vi tilbragte kvelden sammen med Ryan og Lee, med middag og filmen Zero Effect.

Vi har en tidlig start i morgen siden vi skal ta en tidlig ferge til sør-øya, så nå er det nok på tide å gå til sengs. God natt alle sammen!

AK: Jeg vil bare presisere at jeg sto opp 09:30!

AH: Sunday morning started off great with Lee making some excelent coffee (Bless you!), and after AK finally got up we left to explore the capital of New Zealand.

As Wellington is the first real city we’ve visited (excepting Auckland, since we really just landed there and left), we thought we’d do some real city-stuff. We started the day off by visiting Te Papa (Our Place in the language of the Maori), New Zealands national museum. Between us we’ve visited a good number of museums, and we agree: Te Papa is one of the really good ones. We spent a large part of the day there, visiting exhibitions about The Enormous Squid, Earthquakes in New Zealand, The history of European-Maori relations and more.

Lunch was spent on one of Wellingtons hip cafés (good coffee, as promised by Lonely Planet), followed by a stroll in the city while enjoying an ice cream. AK bought some crap CDs (her own words) to play while driving. We then decided to visit the world famous Wellington Zoo. That visit became one of historys shortest zoo-visits, since the place closed just 45 minutes after we got there. We were really effective though, so we got through most of it (Chimps are cool!).

We finished our day in Wellington with a trip up to Mt. Victoria. This small mountain in the middle of the city has a great view, if we knew where it was I’m sure we would have seen Ryans house from there. We spent the evening with Ryan and Lee, having dinner and watching the movie Zero Effect. Thanks a lot for letting us stay with you guys, you are wonderful hosts!

We have an early start tomorrow since we’re on an early ferry to the south island, so now It’s time to go to sleep. Good night everyone.

AK: We got up at 7AM this morning to see the launch of the hot air balloons over Lake Hamilton. Unfortunately the fog was so dense we couldn’t see a thing and the launch kept getting put off until we finally gave up and left. We said goodbye to Anne & Pete, who we were staying with in Hamilton, and headed for our next destination: Rotorua.

The Funky Green Voyager Hostel

The people are great and from absolutely everywhere, not just the working staff, but (of course) the people who stay as well. We share a room with Bjørn from Sweden and Nami from Israel (she’s off at a Haka-show right now, I’m a bit jealous). The working staff are Gerrard (NZ), Leslie (England), Astrid (Germany) and Elle (Wales), awesome people that are great fun to talk to. Gerrard and Leslie got my last two “Kvikk Lunsj”, they seemed to enjoy them

Gerrard & Leslie fighting for the last Kvikk Lunsj

The day was spent getting drenched on the way through town.We stopped at an Irish pub for “lunch”, that beef burger turned into a large dinner. Wow, the size of that portion… So no dinner necessary later on. Good stuff.

Andreas at the Irish pub, hungry for a massive beef burger

We went to see the Rotorua Museum and got a nice tour of the place followed by a 20 minute movie on Maori and Rotorua history. Well worth the 12 dollars. The evening was spent in the hostel talking to the many different people, having some laughs.

Annie being extremely cultural

Regnet fulgte oss hele veien og har egentlig ikke stoppet siden, men det er helt greit. Vi dro til et herberge som ble anbefalt i “Lonely Planet”-boka vår og ble absolutt ikke skuffet. Det er folk her fra over alt i verden, ikke bare de som jobber her, men (selvfølgelig) de som besøker stedet også. Vi deler rom med Bjørn fra Sverige og Nami fra Israel (hun er på et Haka-show akkurat nå, jeg er litt misunnelig). De som jobber her er Gerrard (NZ), Leslie (England), Astrid (Tyskland) og Elle (Wales), utrolig kule folk. Gerrard og Leslie fikk mine to siste Kvikk Lunsj, ser ut som om det ble godt mottatt

Vi ble søkkvåte på vei gjennom sentrum, og stoppet på en irsk pub for å spise “lunsj”. Den burgeren ble visst en diger middag. Wow, for noen digre porsjoner! Så det ble ikke behov for noen middag senere, gitt. Vi stakk innonm museet i Rotorua og fikk oss en flott guidet tur rundt på stedet, samt en 20 minutters film som omhandlet historie fra Rotorua og Maorifolket. Vel verdt de 12 dollarene. Resten av kvelden brukte vi på herberget sammen med folkene her, mye latter og moro

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