Wellington- Nelson

Time really flies when you are enjoying yourself. Without realising it this is already the 5th day of our tour and we are rolling down south towards Wellington. Last night we stayed at Napier, at a scenic hotel resort. Napier is situated at Hawkes Bay and its a fairly quiet little town. The weather had turned rather chilly and even though we had time for a walk, Repin and I went only to the beach and part of the town before the chilly weather drove us back to the hotel. I think  because Napier faces the Pacific Ocean it is more open to the colder winds from the Antartic. Temperatures in Napier were down to 13 degrees Celsius.

View of Wellington from Mount Victoria 

From Napier we stopped by to visit a natural museum  which shows the way of life of the Maoris, their houses and their activities. From there it was a straight road to Wellington, with one short stop for lunch at Dannevirke, a town once dominated by Norwegians and Swedish people. In fact many of the buildings here had pictures of Norse men or Vikings with their famous hammers.

Viking town called Dannevirke

We arrived in Wellington late in the afternoon and Repin as well as the other s decided to go to the Wellington Museum or Te Papa  before it closed at 5pm. However I had developed a headache and decided to go straight to the hotel for a rest. Dinner that night was provided at the hotel and the next day would be an early start  as we would be crossing over to Picton, on South Island . Our ferry would move at 8am which means being at the pier as early as 7.30 am. 

Our hotel was called the Grand Chancellor and it was a 4 star hotel with really beautiful views of Wellington. We also were taken on a cable car ride to the top of Mount Victoria and we saw our son's university - Victoria University as well as his residence while he was studying there : Weir House.