Wellington and the trip north

Wellington is quite a lovely capital. It is a big playground for architects, not too many old buildings can be seen. To me it looked more a bit like LEGO-town. Lots of colors, rectangular structures, playful bridges and harbor, very cheerful. Even if you don't like the style, it's nice diversity. There is something for everyone. Chic shopping in the business district and fun bars and shopping in the „Cuba quarter", the place for young people to go out. Simple pubs can be found next to stylish „IN"-locations. As colorful as the city is as colorful are the people who live in it. Just go out for Salsa and you know what I mean. Like everywhere, this is where you find all the nationalities except for the one of the country you're in ;-) The difference is that here everybody adapts to the Kiwi-life style, is open, friendly, helpful, clean. For a large city (well, in term of New Zealand, around 400.000 people is large) it is very clean. You don't see any trash on the grounds, that was really amazing. 

Wellington has a big cultural scene, lots of artists - which meant for me that I was able to find some dancing…

We arrived 6am in the morning on monday a week ago, and left 7 am in the morning 5 days later after PAM had passed through. The night pictures you see are taken monday morning as we were approaching Wellington marina, from underway on the boat! 

When we left the Wellington harbor area out to the Cook Strait dolphins greeted us. Again ;-) The first two times I did not even get up because I thought they won't stay long. And they didn't. The third time, we're already around the bottom and heading up north on the east coast, I went astern to take pictures. And I kept watching them until I was frozen in the wind. They just did not want to leave. This was the first time EVER, that I had to give up on watching the dolphins. They were just too cute. One played the clown for me, he kept jumping up right next to me, gently gliding back into the water but not without a splash through a flick of his tail - which meant a water fountain high enough to reach me on board. He did that not only once. So funny. They all jumped a lot, but this one was special. When I told them I could not stand there anymore cause I am freezing, they still stayed. But as soon as I was back in the cockpit they left. It is boring for them when no one watches. 

So now we're in Napier, did our first „ticky-tour" (cruising around in the car) to Cliffton this afternoon and are ready for the Tongariro National park with its volcanoes and for Mt. Taranaki at Plymouth, another volcano. We'll be back here thursday to leave friday morning towards Tauranga. 

Here some pix: 

Wellington

The „clown" - he flicked his tail to the right just a millisecond later 

Mother and baby - always together