The last few days on the North Island

After doing our laundry and taking some fruit from the garden, we left New Plymouth. Our next destination was Castlepoint, but since it was raining, we decided to stay at a campground and have a relaxing day. Refreshed, we headed to Castlepoint the next day, where we randomly met two friends and spent a nice afternoon with them. We then continued to Cape Palliser, where we found another idyllic sleeping spot right by the beach, allowing us to watch the beautiful sunset. The next morning, we went to the seal colony. It was truly incredible to see about 50 seals lying on the rocks by the beach and being able to get so close to them. After taking some great photos and videos, we climbed the 261 steps to the lighthouse and enjoyed the incredible view from about 70 meters high. Since we wanted to be in Wellington the next day, we slept about 20 kilometers before Wellington and drove to the city center the next morning. However, we realized that we had overlooked one thing when booking a hotel for 4 nights, and that was that our hotel didn't have parking spaces. So we drove around the city and couldn't find a single free parking space, so we parked our car outside the city. With all our belongings packed, we then returned to the hotel and took a thorough shower. After skyping with my parents the next morning, we visited the national museum. It has some really interesting exhibitions and a house with an earthquake simulation, which was really interesting even though we had already experienced an earthquake. I was particularly impressed by the exhibition on World War I, because honestly, I wasn't aware that New Zealand had fought in World War I at all. The exhibition gives an overview of the happenings in the New Zealand camp from the arrival in Gallipoli to the evacuation and then focuses on individual fates. We had booked a sailing tour with a catamaran in advance for yesterday and I enjoyed being on the water again. It was also nice to see Wellington from a different perspective, and we even spotted a penguin. In the evening, we went to the night market, where there was live music and street food, as well as a few smaller stands, and then we went to a bar to have cocktails and dance. Today, we planned to visit the underground market and later we'll go to the botanical garden, where there is currently a festival with live music.