West Cape - Tararua Forest park - Cape Palliser - Battlehill farm forest park - Wellington

Thursday, December 1, 2016: On Thursday the weather was finally good again, we took some photos with the hostel's calves and the goat before heading west to the westernmost cape of the North Island. After that, we continued to the next free campground: the Woodville Ferry Reserve. The highway here was extremely beautiful in terms of nature, despite the weather getting worse again. When we arrived at the campground, it was extremely windy and the toilet smelled so bad that I almost threw up - so the evening could only get better:D

Friday, December 2, 2016: It was raining again and still windy. We continued south and stopped in the next major town: Masterton. Here, we brushed our teeth in a public toilet and I took a shower in a swimming pool for $2. On some days, you really feel like a homeless person here. However, the sky cleared up for a few hours in between. We went to a small second-hand shop, which was rather dingy, so no one seriously considered making a purchase. Afterwards, we went to the Tararua Forest Park - to the Bucksroad Campsite. When we arrived there around 3pm, we were the only ones there, and it was raining again. We watched 2 movies before finally being able to set up camp (in half-wet grass, but at least not in the rain).

Saturday, December 3, 2016: The weather was good again in the morning. The sun was shining and we could walk around in shorts all day. So we continued south and passed by a Lord of the Rings filming location (Dimholt Road). Therefore, we took the walk of about 1.5 hours there and looked at the Pinnacles. Afterwards, we stopped in a small town called Greytown where there was even a vegan shop, where I bought a cold cocoa and 2 different vegan cheese varieties.

Then we finally went to the South Cape of the North Island - Cape Palliser. We walked from the campground to there because we had hardly any fuel left and the nearest gas station was almost 30 km away.

On the way to the lighthouse, we passed a 'Seal Spot'. It was really awesome to see seals in the wild and we could even get quite close to them! It's really amazing and highly recommended!

The cape itself was relatively boring, and the stairs to the lighthouse were quite challenging.

In the evening, we sat together with a group of (about 23-year-old) New Zealanders who offered us plenty of beer (including drinking games, of course)

Sunday, December 4, 2016: The weather had turned bad again, so we drove back in the northwest direction and took a shower at the swimming pool between Upper & Lower Hutt - for free, because the swimming pool will unfortunately close at the end of December. But hey, lucky for us. We then went directly to the next campground: Battle Hill Forest Farm Park. In the evening, we made sandwiches in the pan over the camping stove - which was really delicious.

Monday, December 5, 2016: Today we finally went to Wellington, we visited Mount Victoria before calling various hostels - but no luck, no 2 beds available for tonight. Well, shit happens, so we checked Airbnb & now we're sitting in an abandoned house, somewhere in the suburbs where it smells like Asian food and it's really creepy in general - especially because the owner told me we should always lock the door.

She herself never seems to live here. In general, it seems more like they constantly sublet this house to travelers. But well, now we can at least take care of a hostel for tomorrow and the following days.