Whanganui to Wellington

On day 9 of our travels we woke up to a beautiful sunrise over the beach.This campsite was easily one of the nicest we had stayed at so far with the most amazing views, very clean facilities, and a cheap price. 

We headed to Whanganui to stock up on food as we had eaten virtually everything. After completing this vital task we went to check out some nearby beaches as it was a really sunny day. We stopped at multiple beaches - Foxton, Himatangi, and several others that I can't remember the name of (and that google maps cane even find!) as we made our way to our campsite for the evening. 

Each of these beaches were beautiful and virtually empty. However, for the obsessive surfer, these beaches were not really surfable and were described as 'a lake' or 'a mess' and so he became more and more grumpy. He had also managed to lose one of his flip flops so he had become a true traveller refusing to buy anymore and walking around everywhere in bare feet. Thomas perked up considerably though when we found ice creams just outside Foxton beach that were literally the size of our faces for only $3. The equivalent in auckland would have most likely been $15. This ice cream was definitely the highlight of the day (and probably one of he highlights of our trip so far - it was that great.) 

The campsite for that evening was free and next to a stream and set in a national park. Unfortunately next to a stream also meant there were quite a few sandflies which were becoming our nemesis at these campsites.

The next day we woke early as Thomas was desperate to surf again since he had had an entire day without suitable waves. We went straight to Otaki Beach, which was the closest one to our campsite, to find again a very flat beach. We decided to try and finally catch a fish and so set off on a kind of fishing mission (stopping at a total of 4 spots to try our luck.) However, we found no fish (Thomas did manage to get the fishing rod stuck on a rock though and had to use his surfboard to paddle out to the other side of the river to free the rod - so at least he got a surf in for the day in the end!) 

Again we woke early (as was becoming the norm) and drove down the Kaptiti Coast towards Wellington. We again stopped at various beaches as we headed South to try and find some surfable waves but again found nothing. At a bit of a loss as to what to do for the day, since we weren't catching our ferry until the next day, we drove into the Kaitoki Regional Park where we found the area where Rivendell (where the elves live in LOTR) was filmed (which was practically unrecognisable to the Rivendell from the films but still a good visit.)  After lunch the obsessive fisher (who was getting frustrated by lack of waves and lack of fish) again tried his luck fishing and again got absolutely nothing (this was becoming some sort of pattern.) After deciding to give up for the day we headed up to our campsite for the evening which was called Battle Hill Campsite and was home to a historic site (which are very few in NZ) where a battle between European settlers and the Maori took place. This was actually quite a surprisingly nice walk and gave a good view over the land. We then hudddled back inside the car as it began to rain again and played cards for the rest of the evening (something which we were becoming a little overly competitive about.) 

The following day we wanted to get into Wellington really early as we had to be at the ferry terminal at 13:45 and so were ready to leave at 6am. Unfortunately, we found ourselves locked in to the campsite and spotted a huge sign that we had both failed to read on the way in saying that the park was only open between 8am and 8pm. We parked in front of the gates and waited for the park ranger to come. Finally an hour and a half later we were on the way to Wellington, right on time to get stuck in all the rush hour traffic. 

Once we were in Wellington we first checked the beaches (of course) to see if there were any waves (which again there weren't) we did find showers at the beach (hadn't showered in about 4 days - new record.) 

We then decided to go to Weta Caves (where you could do a tour of the LOTR workshop.) We went straight to this LOTR ultra fan geek zone and had a tour of some of the props and costumes and were given a lot of information about the films themselves and the other films that Weta had worked on (most recently the girl in the shell?) At $25pp it was relatively good value and afterwards we headed into the city centre to grab some lunch. 

We managed to find a heaving food court - Capital Food Court - and bought a huge pizza each for $12pp. This food court was really worth a visit and there was a massive amount of choice for decent prices. On our walk back to the car we found somewhere selling French crepes and of course had to stop here (although they were apparently not as good as a true French crepe according to the Frenchman.)

There were so many awesome little bars and cafes in Wellington and generally although I hadn't expected much from the capital our first impression was that it definitely had a bit more personality and atmosphere than Auckland. Although, with only a morning spent there it's hard to know for sure if this was the case. We boarded our ferry at 13:45 and with much excitement began our trip to the South Island.