Wellington

Before arriving in Wellington, our driver Arius had made us aware of a rugby match going on in the city, and he said it would be a great Kiwi Experience to see a rugby game whilst in New Zealand. There was about 20 of us who wanted to go, and so the responsibility landed on Mark who offered to sort it out.

On the drive into Wellington, we had a very nervy Mark trying to ring round and book 20 tickets all in the same location for us and our new friends. Thankfully he managed to succeed, so he was a very popular man on the bus that day.

Wellington being the capital city of New Zealand, was very busy and built up and with plenty of things to do, however the city is only a minimum one night stop so Arius would be leaving with his bus the following day, along with Mindy which everyone was very sad about. Her catchphrases of "STAP IT" and "Oh Devil" had become contagious on the bus, and is something we all still say to this day. She promised us she would throw a big party at her place in Queenstown though, so it wasn't the last we would see of Mindy!

The chosen hostel for the Kiwi Experience in Wellington is Base, but we decided to try out Nomads, as they offer $2 dinners, and as we were all feeling the strain from Sky dives and other activities, we thought we would give Nomads a try.

The three of us were in a room with Iqra, Charlotte and Isabelle, and we FINALLY managed to get Mark to try on his vest we got him from Muscle Beach when we were in L.A.



We all relaxed that evening, especially Iqra who had suddenly caught a very nasty cold (one that we would all experience eventually!) and planned how we would spend our chosen 3 nights in Wellington.

Not only is Wellington the capital, it is also the capital city of Culture and arts, and there was lots of this on display throughout the city.




We decided the next day we would go an visit the museum Te Papa. It is completely free, so a great place to mooch around all day before we headed to the Rugby game in the evening.

The museum had a nature section where we saw a giant squid, a History section with dinosaur bones, a geography section with earthquake simulators, and an Art section. There was also a whole section dedicated to Maori history, AND free wi-fi so we could catch up with family and friends so as you can imagine, we spent a good few hours here. Unfortunately Iqra didn't come as she was feeling too unwell and wanted to save her energy for the match!

'more dinosaur' Louis age 6...... 'Agreed' Alan age 23

That evening, we were all so excited for the Rugby! We grabbed our $2 dinners from the bar at Nomads, and washed them down with a few pre-match beers.

Steph, Charlotte, Amy, Tom, Iqra and Izzy

We got to the match just in time for the game to start. It was Hurricanes vs Chiefs, and we decided we would support the Hurricanes as the chant was the most fun to do.

The game was great to watch and a really electric atmosphere. We drank lots of beers so we can't remember the final score, but we know we all had a great time.

Mark, Tom, Steph, Amy and Iqra

Our Kiwi Experience family! (minus Mindy :( )

After the game, we all decided we didn't want our night to stop there, and as Wellington's nightlife is meant to be good, we thought we shouldn't miss out on that experience either.

We went home, got changed and had a few more drinks down in the Nomads bar. 

They were playing some great 90s tunes, and the mood was so good, with people dancing on tables and cheap drinks.

We eventually ventured out into the city but found we couldn't get the mood going like we had in the last place. We decided to retreat back to the hostel but stop off for an obligatory Mc Donalds on the way back. Now we know Wellington is a big city and at that time of night Mc Donalds is a number one eating establishment, but there we found the MESSIEST Mc Donalds we have ever seen, so much so we had to take pictures!

The following day everyone was feeling fragile (a feeling we were getting a lot with this group of people!) We decided a day to the Zoo in the fresh air would make us feel better. It was a short bus journey away so all we had to do was find some hangover food and get on the bus.

We had a few casualties as Iqra wasnt feeling to well so she decided to see Te Papa, and on the way to the bus stop Charlotte had a wave of hangover sickness so had to abort!

We eventually got to Zoo to discover that it was a family day and was only going to cost us $2 to get in!

Jo, Archie, Mark, David, Steph, Annie, Tom,Amy, Wise John and Izzy

The zoo was a pretty standard zoo, although it did have wild kangeroos jumping around, and a huge pig that they had trained to "sit" which Mark was made up with. It wasn't a huge zoo, but a nice way to spend the day. We even got up close and personal with a giraffe whilst having his dinner.

After our visit, we decided to take a long walk back to the city which Steph was NOT happy about! After about an hour and a half of walking, we got back to our room. Some of the gang decided to go bowling, but Iqra was STILL unwell (earning her the name sicky Icky) so ourselves and Mark decided to stay in and have a take away curry.

The next day we would be leaving Wellington at 6:30 in the morning so it was an early start! Unfortunately for us, our friend David was going to be staying in Wellington to find work. The next morning he got up early and came to wave us off in the Lord of The Rings themed foyer of Nomads. It was sad to leave him goodbye, especially after some of his fantastic one liners on our trip and also sad to see his and wise johns bromance be broken up. John after all had earned the name 'Wise John' after convincing David that jumping from the balcony into the swimming pool in Rotorua was a bad idea.

Today we would be crossing over on the ferry to the highly anticipated South Island!