Wellington (5 days)

The last five days on the North Island have unfortunately flown by again, like the last four weeks in general. We arrived at our accommodation in Wellington around 5 pm and were greeted with rain. We couldn't make good use of the evening because of my migraine. But the next day we made up for it, walking along the waterfront, visiting the Old St. Paul's Cathedral, the Parliament, the National Library (where there was a very interesting exhibition on the Holocaust), and other sights, unfortunately all in the rain... Even the walk to dinner was accompanied by rain. The next day, we went to the Kapiti Coast and walked about 15km along the coast in the sunshine. We rejuvenated ourselves at the shopping center in Paraparaumu before driving back to Wellington and collapsing into bed. The next day was laundry day. After the third attempt, we found a self-service laundromat where we could wash our four loads of laundry, unfortunately not without problems. The first machine swallowed our money and the second suddenly started running at 90°, so the cycle was also interrupted. After about two hours at the laundromat, we dashed back to our accommodation and hung up our laundry. In the afternoon, we took the cable car to the Botanic Gardens, but unfortunately it was not a highlight for us, so we mostly sat down on a bench and enjoyed the sun, fortunately! The next day started directly with rain again, so we visited the national museum in the morning/afternoon. In the afternoon, we walked up Mount Victoria and enjoyed the view before going to a pizzeria for dinner and picking up our dry laundry and packing it again. This morning at 6 o'clock, the alarm clock rang, so we got up, had a quick breakfast, and suddenly we were on the largest Interislander ferry heading towards the South Island, which also means that half of our time in New Zealand is already over. The journey was really spectacular, with nearly 600 cars and 1300 passengers crossing between the two islands of New Zealand within 3.5 hours. The first stop on the South Island is now Nelson.