Travel blog: Crossing Cook Strait into Wellington

Anna Kainberger is taking a year-out from her career to travel in south-east Asia, Australasia and the South Pacific, along with Hawaii and the USA. This month she is reporting from New Zealand. Here is her 20th blog entry:

The Magic Bus ticket I purchased covered the Christchurch and Kaikoura regions twice before a drop-off in Picton, where I boarded a ferry to the North Island of New Zealand.

This meant saying goodbye to my fellow Magic Bus travellers and moving onwards and upwards to see the second island.

Crossing Cook Strait on a clear day is a pleasure. The ferry was a quite big, with several decks and as the sun was out I decided to go up to the sundeck to catch some rays and take in the wonderful views.

The ferry ride takes 3.5 hours and there is all sorts of onboard entertainment to while away the hours, including an onboard cinema, restaurant, pub (with TV screens), a childrens' play corner, an executive work station and just about everything needed to make the voyage comfortable.

I stayed outside, watching the landscape go by, until we reached open waters and it got too windy and cold. At one point my sunglasses were nearly blown off my head, so I decided to go downstairs and have a coffee to get warm again.

Boarding the ferry is very much like boarding a plane but with less security checks. The other option would have been to fly in a small Cesna plane but the luggage restrictions were quite tight and I felt that the ferry would be just as nice.

The difference in price is minimal with the ferry costing NZ$59 (£23.60) and the flight NZ$61 (£24.50). However, the airline charges for any extra luggage weight.

When we finally docked in Wellington I hopped on the free intercity shuttle bus to the hostel, which was located near the Waterloo train station.

The interesting fact about this particular hostel is that it used to be a hotel and was chosen to host the Queen's entourage on her 1953 Coronation Tour of New Zealand.

When the hotel was converted for budget accommodation some of the luxuries remained.

Today it's called Downtown Backpackers and it has a different feel to other budget accommodation, being an art deco style building and featuring facilities such as private tiled bathrooms in most of the double, twin and single rooms, elegant staircases and high ceilings.

I had decided to stay two nights in Wellington as it was supposed to have a rather arty feel about it and I wanted to see the famous Te Papa museum as well as just soak in the feel and atmosphere without having to rush off the next day.

Downtown backpackers is located a little bit out of the town centre but you can walk along the harbour into town in 25 minutes.

It is a beautiful walk, passing Te Papa Tongarewa (the museum of New Zealand) and the Circa Theatre, with little cafes, bars and restaurants scattered along the way.

Wellington is New Zealand's political centre, with the parliament and the head offices of all government ministries and departments, plus the bulk of the foreign diplomatic missions based in New Zealand.
The compact city centre supports an arts scene, cafe culture and nightlife much larger than most cities of a similar size.

It is a centre of New Zealand's film and theatre industry. The national museum (Te Papa), the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the Royal New Zealand Ballet and the biennial New Zealand International Arts Festival are all based there. So if you have time, try to go and see a play or ballet.

Wellington has great shopping if you are into your vintage clothing and vintage style, as I was later to find out.

The city centre is very pretty and there are buskers and art students around, keeping the streets buzzing and the atmosphere of the place has a good vibe.

There is some good night life and the backpacker scene here is a bit more spread-out, with a number of hostels scattered across town. There is no main travellers' centre so you can go pretty much anywhere and have a great time.

I visited Te Papa and spent the rest of my time people-watching and taking pictures. I had toyed with the idea of getting a tattoo in Wellington but the artist I chose was booked out for a number of weeks and so I had to discard that particular travel souvenir for another time and place.

If you are into body art New Zealand offers plenty of opportunity to get inked and if you like Maori-style tattoos you have to get it done here, where it will be the real thing. Tattoo art is big in New Zealand, with the ancient history of Maori tattoos.

As I skipped Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound, as well as Stewart Island in the South Island, I bought an extension for the north to the Bay of Islands and Cape Reinga - to see the most northern tip of New Zealand.

The plan is to travel north via Napier, Taupo and Rotorua to reach Auckland for an overnight stop and then leave for the Bay of Islands, Hokianga and Cape Reinga, before heading back to Auckland for two nights and trying to come to terms with the fact that my time in New Zealand is coming to an end.

Anna Kainberger