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The highs and lows of Wellington

Wellington is a great city, and there is a lot to like about it: it's vibey, it's got a great harbour, the people are friendly (especially the cops - and smart too!) and it's pretty. Unfortunately, what will always remind us of our stay is what we hate about Wellington: the French consulate and its unhelpfulness and bureaucratic counter staff. I don't think it's a French thing, it's just a consulate thing, and the most frustrating part is, there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.

However, back to the positive!

We absolutely loved the Karori Bird Sanctuary, a little piece of indigenous New Zealand where predators are kept out by huge and deep fences and where we could spot some of NZ's rare birds. We saw a Stitchbird twice which was lucky as they're apparently very rare.

To picturesque Wanganui

And then we started our way north where we stopped in at the town Paraparaumu for the night, hoping to get out to Kapiti island for more bird spotting. But the weather was against us, so we headed to Wanganui where we hoped to do some kayaking up the river. But again, the river was too high because of the rain. Secretly I think we were both relieved we didn't have to get wet (as well as cold).

Even though we didn't stay long in these places, we did stay in great hostels in both of them.