Sisters Astray

Our train ride down the eastern coast of the North Island was so beautiful. The scenery is amazing here! Not to mention a great bar car fully equipped with the local beer, Monteith’s. Very yummy. We made it into Wellington, the country’s capital city, that afternoon and got settled into the hostel and quickly learned just how expensive internet in this country is. $2 per 20 minutes!  Pretty insane, hence the lack of posts the past few weeks.  We were only in Wellington for a couple of days so we tried to make the most of it.

We spent our first day exploring the national history museum, Te Papa, which had excellent exhibits of the New Zealand landscape, its flora and fauna and native Maori culture. Afterwards, we took a walk along the waterfront of Wellington Harbor and strolled down Courtney Place, a street filled with tons of shops and restaurants.

Wellington Harbor

I went for a run that afternoon on the waterfront after my nap and that evening we went next door to the hostel bar for the “free dinner”.  Nachos! Um…yeah right.  It was store-bought corn ships with a can of chili over them.  Pretty nasty.  But hell, it was “free”.  We closed out the night with a bottle of wine and a couple of games of pool; Kim put up a decent fight the second game, and then headed to bed.

The next day, I went for another run and then we walked over to the botanical gardens. We’ve never seen so many roses! I never knew there were so many different types. It was gorgeous. It also had an amazing view of the city. Afterwards, we had another delicious Indian feast and then went back to the hostel to rest. Life is tough these daysJ

Roses at the Botanical Garden

We also heard Wellington had really great seafood and we were both craving mussels again. We spent our last evening there having dinner and a few beers on the pier. I really loved Wellington and enjoyed myself.

Green lipped mussels. Yum!

The following day we took the 3 hour ferry down to the South Island to spend Christmas in Christchurch with Becky, one of Kim’s other flat mates from here, and her husband.  The views from the ferry were absolutely amazing.  Check out these photos!!!  Again, the bluest water ever!