On the road again

We have left the security of sunny Papamoa and took the scenic route (although every road in NZ is scenic road) down to lake Taupo, across the desert road where we managed to miss not one but three big mountains due to torrential rain and mist (one mountain so big that it played the part of Mount Doom in 'the rings'). Impressive stuff. We ended up in misty Wellington where met up with Mikey, Leihia's mate who was a star to put us up in a massive house on the hill overlooking Wellington bay at very short notice - we left it too late to call on Rob's family who live there.

Wellington was pretty and looks great from the top of the hill - or so Mikey told us as took us up to the lookout but unfortunately we saw as much of Wellington from above as we did of those three mountains. It was like 19th century London. But when we drove down the town has opened up in front of us. The long bay, big lights and some funky art. It was an exhibition of photos of Earth from above.

The next day we caught the legendary ferry to the South Island. Even though it was misty (yet again - and they complain about England) the chugging away through Malbrough Sounds was quite an experience. (btw. a sound is a large sea or ocean inlet larger than a bay, deeper than a bight, wider than a fjord, or it may identify a narrow sea or ocean channel between two bodies of land - Thanks to Wikipedia).
We have disembarked at Picton and headed straight to Nelson by, shock horror, another scenic drive. We spent two nights in Nelson which is a very lovely little town - they call it a city (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson%2C_nz). After lazing around for a day or two we drove west hit the sea and turned north to the end of the road where we find ourselves now - in a hippy backpackers in Karamea awaiting a big BBQ.