Wednesday 30 January

Wellington
Well, we've been travelling for 5 days now and this is the first chance I've really had to catch up with myself. We are parked on a Motor Home Car park behind a Motel on the outskirts of Wellington, and it's pretty dreary. It is just a car park with electric hookups for the big guys and a block with toilets, showers and a kitchen. We are here because we have a 09.30 checkin for a ferry tomorrow morning and we didn't fancy a really early start. There are about 12 other vehicles here at the moment and probably room for another 12. One other is the same size as us and all the others are proper Motor Homes.
We arrived around lunchtime and after parking up we took the bus into Wellington and had a look round. It's a nice place as cities go, we took a long walk around the bay and the harbour. People here are obsessed with jogging, it's a long time since I have been to London, but at lunchtimes does everyone don Lycra gear and Nike shoes and jog round Hyde Park? I really had to admire many of them, all shapes, sizes and ages, from the super-fit, lean and tanned, to the slightly podgy with an uneven gait and hot sweaty faces. We enjoyed a cold beer sitting at a waterside cafe, still showing a banner advertising that the 7s could be watched there.
We took a Cable Car up to Kelburn with wonderful views over the City and then spent far too long wandering down through the Botanical Gardens. These are magnificent, equally as impressive as those at Kirstenbosch in Cape Town, even if not as expansive. The Hydrangeas were particularly impressive, a wonderful range of colours, and the Ferns native to New Zealand in their shady Grottos. A covered area was devoted to spectacular displays of Begonia, Coleus and Orchids, amongst many others. We only took one path through the Gardens, many other walls are marked. I could spend a long time there.
We decided not to do anymore sightseeing as we wanted to get back to the van in time to get ready for the morning, we are not sure if we will have access to the vehicle during the crossing which takes about two and a half hours. We are veteran ferry travellers from our time in Greece and conditions vary greatly, so we have packed a bag with things we might need, sun cream and hats and warm clothes, binoculars, maybe we will see whales?
We decided to eat in Wellington because the Car Park isn't very enticing, even though we could have used the well equipped kitchen. We decided to try out a Japanese Fast Food place. When we were in Auckland we had looked enviously as lots of office workers appeared at lunchtime and gathered on the seats by the bay, clutching lovely boxes of Sushi take-out. We choose 2 boxes, each with about 6 large portions in them, 1 of fish and 1 of vegetables and 2 other rice and chicken boxes. They were delicious, so tasty and aromatic. We sat at a table just by the stall on plastic chairs and ate it with forks, chop sticks were also provided. It came to NZ$17, I think that's about £9. We will definitely do it again.

As usual when travelling, so many questions. Is there a shortage of clay here? I have only rarely seen brick built buildings and tiled roofs are even rarer. Most of the houses seem to be of clapboard, I assume they have some sort of internal insulation. Larger buildings are usually made from cement blocks. Even really 'nice' houses mostly have corrugated tin roofs, so hot, so noisy. Occasionally I have seen what looked like artificial tiling on roofs, but I am not sure want the material was.
People are so very friendly. If we are standing still, looking at a map, someone always comes up to see if we want any help. They all say hello on the campsites, campers are always friendly anyway, it,s why it is our preferred method of travel and accommodation, but here they seem particularly so.
I am really looking forward to getting to the South Island, even the Kiwis we have met tell us how spectacular it is.