Wellington

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Just arrived at Wellington, after a long drive on the bus. Am feeling a bit flu-y after this morning's rafting, and am going to take it easy for a couple of days while I'm here...

.. Or at least that was the plan. Unfortunately, after having a meal at one of the many Irish bars in Wellington, I decided to throw caution to the wind, and indulge in a number of drinks. It all culminated in a karaoke bar rendition of 'Hard day's night' at about 2AM.

When I got up after that, I was really feeling rough, so dosed myself up with Lemsip, and headed out to do some sight-seeing in Wellington. Wellington is a much nicer city than Auckland (the previous capital), and is pretty artsy (theatres, art galleries, loads of live music) and generally has a really good atmosphere (especially on a Friday night).

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I went to the Te Papa museum, which is known as one of the best in New Zealand. the building is definitely very impressive, maybe even ousting the Washington DC air and space museum as the best I've been to. Unfortunately it was absolutely packed (it was on a Saturday afternoon), and a lot of the exhibits seemed aimed at kids (push this button, pull this lever, etc). Having said that, I enjoyed having a look round.

After that I went up to the Government buildings, the most striking of which is known as 'the beehive' (see the pic I've attached to this entry). I'd missed the last tour of the parliament building by 10 minutes (d'oh!) so I headed back to the cable car.

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The Wellington cable car was built back in the day to allow people to commute from their houses up on the hills down to their places of work in Wellington harbour itself, and although the cars have been replaced with more health and safety conscious versions, and electric motors have replaced the smoke-stacks of the steam powered version, the same track is used today.

It was a bit anachronistic to say the least, rattling up the hill while the other car passes in the opposite direction. Once at the top, the views were great over Wellington's harbour.