Oh Welly...
Wellington was good to us, in fact we love Wellington! and we made more friends, adding Nicole & Mike into our collection.
Mike, Nicole, Alicia and I at a lookout
The Lord of the Rings VIP your group with Jamie and Adam added to our group!
The hospitality was great and this city is great! Reminds me of Portland with all it's different districts and actually Wellington has a street/ alley way that they refer to as little Portland (yes, Oregon) because we portlanders are famous world wide for our weirdness. Sorry Wellington, you are going to have a hard time being as weird as Portland!
Mike is a tour guide for New Zealand and all things Lord of The Rings and since he had Saturday and Sunday off he gave us a private tour of places where the movie was filmed and we got to reinact a few poses from the movies in those same spots! Fun!
We did a behind the scenes (no photos allowed) workshop at Weta studios where they make a lot of props for the movies and where a lot of props are stored. Mike drove us around to see some other sights of the city. Jamie, a BQ performer & friend of Nicole's was in Wellington to perform while traving so Nicole, Mike, Alicia and I went to see the cabaret show she was in.
Jamie stole the show, Pdx brought the talent and she was really the only one worth watching the performance of.
We went to a farmers market on Sunday and paid $7 for A LOT of farm fresh foods that we turned into a yummy stir fry for dinner that night.
A & I struck up a conversation with a lady at a vintage clothing store and it turned into her offering us a free night in her Bach (kiwi term for vacation home) on the South Island in Omahru (?) which happens to be the Steam Punk capital of the world and a town full of beautiful Victorian houses and a near by restaurant that travel guide Rick Steve's says is the
best seafood restaurant in the world! Sadly we don't really have the time to get to where her house is w/out a car and it's on the opposite side of the island to where we will be. I'll have to visit that area next time I'm in New Zealand visiting my new friends.
The Te Papa museum is free with a reasonably priced cafe and free wifi throughout the building. A backpackers paradise! The museum is incredible and I can't understand how it's free. They have the worlds only colossal squid on display and it's pretty amazing to see in person. Truth be told I'm actually still here at the museum writing this over lunch while Alicia skypes with her people. We are going to finish the museum soon.
Aiden (a contact Alicia had) picked us up from Mike & Nicole's house at 7pm and drove us to his house so we could stay the night with with him, his girlfriend and her sister for our last night in Wellington. They were very kind and treated us to a delicious dinner of burgers, chicken kabobs, salad, corn and a homemade chocolate cake for desert.
We catch the 3 hour ferry to the South Island tomorrow morning. Known to be one of the most beautiful ferry rides in the world and I'm really looking forward to the breathtaking views we are expected to see.