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Hurray, a train that went faster than cars!!! Australian slow trains were becoming a distant memory and sure enough within around 20 minutes we were pulling into the kiwi capital, Wellington. We didn’t really have a plan so did our usual wander to get a feel for the place, it was a remarkably relaxed city with a fantastic harbour. After a while we went to check out Te Papa, New Zealand’s premier museum. It advised us in our guide book not to try and do the museum in one go, so we thought we’d do a few floors then finish it off the next day. Not a chance, it was amazing we were in there for well over an hour and a half and we had only managed to do the first section. We quickly decided that we would need a fair few visits, but we knew we had to come back through Wellington so weren’t too worried about not fitting it all in.

We were in need of some air so went out to check out a bit

more of Wellington. We ambled our way up to Cuba Street which is a trendy part of town. It is the alternative street with loads of groovy shops and a host of ethnic restaurants and after checking out a few menus we found that they all had prices to suit our budget. Fantastic! It meant we could eat out, always a pleasure. We found a great Malaysian café and had a wicked bowl of veggie noodle soup, Rob had the fish variety and we also had a couple of Roti and some green tea. All in all it cost a mere £8.50 - exception value! As it was a bring your own café and we didn’t, we went to check out one of the local bars which was hosting a happy hour. I’m not a great fan of New Zealand lager/beer so I had a few glasses of delicious red wine whilst Rob supped his pints from those old style glasses with handles on the side - you know, the really heavy ones!!!

After this it was time for us to start