On Tuesday we moved to the infinitely better Nomads hostel where we paid less and were upgraded to a four bed dorm rather than the ten bed dorm we booked because they had the space and are incredibly nice like that. The rain kept pouring down all day and it wasn't pleasant walking between hostels with our rucksacks on.
The rain made us want to curl up inside and do absolutely nothing. Many of the sights we had planned to see relied on good weather which we didn't have. Instead we trudged to the Vietnamese embassy to collect our passports and visas before returning to the hostel, after a short wander. Our beautiful anoraks definitely came in handy.
That evening we met some other travellers who were just chilling in the lounge area and we decided to visit the Te Papa museum together the following day. The museum is a mish mash of exhibitions including: the natural world, Maori history and culture and New Zealand history.
There are some interesting finds at the museum including the large fossil in the photo above and the colossal squid (below) the largest ever found which has been preserved. It was absolutely huge!
My favourite part of the museum was all to do with the natural world and the forces of the Earth such as plate tectonics. There's as a large section dedicated to earthquakes including an interactive display complete with a shaking house. The power of the Earth is absolutely fascinating and I enjoyed roaming around this section taking my time to read the information.
The last exhibition we visited was the Maori one and we admired the beautiful, impressive carvings on the long boat and looked at the replica meeting halls and store houses.
We had a relaxed afternoon at the hostel before making our way to the bus stop for the bus to Auckland. It was an 11 hour overnight journey and quite possibly one of my worst ideas ever. It meant we could save money on accommodation but we also arrived in Auckland around 7am and had to go to the airport and wait around until our flight to Fiji at midday. We ended up kipping on some of the airport benches as we were so exhausted!
And so there we have it, a tale of two cities, admittedly probably not as engrossing as the book, and heavily based on Wellington but never mind. I have absolutely loved my time in New Zealand, a country dominated by impressive scenery and many millions of sheep. It is a shame we travelled so quickly round it but that is all the more reason to come back. NZ, I'll be seeing you.
Until next time.
A x
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