Wellington, Wellywood, Wanganui and Wet, Wet, Wet.

After we had sailed over from Picton we spent a day in Wellington - the capital city! It was a lovely hot day and the place is full of fabulous buildings, shops and cafes. There is also a harbour (obviously - we came in by ferry!) and lots of water activities. At the end of the day we ended up spending 3 hours in the museum which was varied and very interesting. This is a modern built Maori Meeting House that is so beautiful.

The following day we went to "Wellywood" which is the film capital of New Zealand. We visited Weta Caves which is a special effects company that works closely with Peter Jackson amongst others. Loads of fabulous models, costumes and other artifacts to both look at in a mini museum and purchase in the shop. This included original Lord of the Rings armour.

Dr Grordbort and his Victorian Ray Gun - soon to be made famous on the silver screen.
Do we need to label the other photo, my precious!


On our way out from Wellington we stopped at a town called Otaki that had the finest Maori church in NZ. The combination of Maori art inside and a familiar Anglican exterior was unusual but worked. We also saw the meeting house there to add to our Maori pictures.

Next stop was Wangatui where we spent a couple of hours before tea exploring. Again loads of fabulous architecture, museums and parks. The thing that intrigued us the most was walking into a hill through a tunnel dated 1916 where a lift dated 1919 took you up inside the hill to the top from where you can climb 176 steps to the top of a tower commemorating soldiers lost in the world wars.


This is us at the top of the tower!


From there we hit rain, rain, rain. At one stage it looked as if the road we were on would flood. This picture is at New Plymouth and is the least of the bad weather!

We carried on in the rain to Hamilton. On the way we stopped off at The Kiwi House to see a Greater Spotted Kiwi and a Brown Kiwi as we knew would never be able to see them in the wild!


While in Hamilton we went to see the Bridal Veil Falls. This is an example of the good side of the rain - as the falls were in full flow and hitting the pool from 180 ft above.


Back in Hamilton we went on a boat trip along the river and then found the "Riff Raff" statue. It is of Richard O'Brian (in character) who worked there and was inspired by his job at the cinema to write his hit - and those of you who know Rachel well should be able to work out what the show was!!

We are now off to spend a few days in Rotorua for Gordon's birthday - should be some good pictures there!