May 30 - Wellington

Sweet, an entire day in one city to wonder and enjoy ourselves! This ment an early start to take advantage of all of the time we have in the capital of New Zealand. Of course our first stop was at the country's national museum, Te Papa (fun to read and spell). Unfortunately we didn't take the time to check when it open and our eager spirit got us there 30 mins before it even opened. Overpriced museum coffee it is.
Finally got in and spent hours looking at the wildlife and cultural exhibits, not to mention some pretty good photography bits. The place has a total of 6 floors, we only covered 4 in the 3 hours we were there. Even then we rushed through quite a lot.
Then it was time to get lost (trying to follow a set walking tour of course), and find brunch. A bizarre looking breakfast place that advertised all day breakfast was our choice. Unfortunately the meals I could eat were incredibly overpriced. This left me to the bacon nachos covered in bbq sauce and tomato butter. One of the more unique dishes I have recently had the luxury of trying, it really wasn't too bad. I may even try immitating it myself when I get home.
Not knowing what to do next we headed off to the ever helpful visitors centre. Where we happened to run into our potato boiling Irish friend who was just as clueless as us. He gave us some pointers on the South Island and us gave him some on the North. Then off to book buses and hostels for the next night or two. All I will say about this is that Intercity coachline sucks and has way too much fine print for my liking, bookings took at least an hour.
Most expensive trip of the day... $1 ride on the big red cable car to the top of a hill. Nothing quite like the student discount. Ended up at the Botanic Gardens around sunset to take some great pictures. A quick stroll through the garden (we were hungry and cold) past the parliament buildings, ours are more impressive ;) And back to make ourselves dinner.
This time there was the Irish guy making even more potatoes. Mel went to bed early and I ended up staying up way too late talking to Gene (Irish guy) about random things, such as the distrubing life of Micheal Jackson.