Picton on South Island to Wellington, the nation's capitol.
After leaving Picton, the ferry makes its way down
Marlborough Sound which goes on for a long way.
It's a three hour ride and it takes an hour just to get to
Cook Strait from Picton.
After two months on South Island it felt like saying goodbye
to a good friend.
The ferry provides several options for drowning your sorrows.
Although the islands are north and south of each other, once in
the Cook Strait it's an east-west trip between the two ports.
I'm not sure why there are two lighthouses here but it looked
pretty neat.
The approach to Wellington Harbor. I've never come to a big
city by sea.
Not a very good shot but the city of Wellington.
High-tech, airport-esque ganway.
Wellington is the Capitol of New Zealand. The Parliament,
conveniently located one block from my Hostel, is housed in
three buildings.
The offices for the individual ministries are housed in a newer
building called the Beehive.
Tribute to political windbags. (John Seddon, New Zealand's
longest serving prime minister)
I arrived on Easter week-end and the place was like a ghost town.
Good time to check out Te Papa, the National Museum
My favorite exhibit though, was at the Wellington/Maritime
museum. It was a hologram telling a Maori legend about fire
My other favorite was the cable car built at an angle to go up
the steep hill.
Even the stations are tippy to accomodate the cable cars.
But it's a great view from the top.
And then you can walk back to town through the Botanic Gardens.
I went to an Easter service at the Cathedral. The music was
amazing but the building was a but cold. The old Cathedral,
however, is a wonderful old wooden church with a much warmer
feeling.
