A day off in Wellington, NZ's capital, to do jobs and enjoy the sights.

OUr first impression last night, until we became desperate for a square of grass, was that the city had a great, lively vibe and we were happy to arrive. We walked into the city centre from our 'lodge' and had a take-away supermarket breakfast sitting by the harbour. We walked further round and all along the quay was incredibly well styled with a mixture of modern art work and the use of old shipping artefacts. We saw a school group having kayak lessons in the lagoon and a drama group in the middle of a "Survivor" style challenge, collecting clues after jumping in the water!

We booked our ferry down over to Picton, Scott dropped his bike off with AVanti, again, to re-spoke and true the back wheel, we bought a few bits and bobs that we needed and changed our flights back to the UK to 27th June!

Other than jobs, we visited Te Papa ("Our Place"), NZ's national museum, where we saw exhibits on the instability of NZ (in terms of earthquakes, volcanoes and crazy weather), wentin an earthquake simulator, saw birds and sealife. We then wandered over to the cable car and got a lift up a steep hill to the Botanical Gardens situated over the city. We had another picnic here (aim to avoid the minging kitchen) and ambled round the gardens. Our fave was the herb garden. I was cold and so my husband chivalrously offered me his cycle helmet to keep warm which I gladly accepted. Kind soul. We waited until dark to see the city at night and then whizzed back down the hill in the cable car.

That night was the windiest we'd experienced in the tent. We hadn't fixed the guy ropes due to a shortage of space in the yard and so the tent shook and shuddered away all night. It was kind of hard to sleep with canvas slapping you in the face every five minutes!