More From Wellington

Guten tag. There's just time for me to write a blog entry while Emily steers Leland safely through the winding roads between Picton and Nelson, at the northernmost tip of the South Island. Besides being the first time we've seen some of the landscape the South Island has to offer, today has also provided us with the most treacherous weather conditions yet - unfortunately for only Emily's second time behind the wheel - with hammering rain and strong gusts which noticeably shake the campervan from side to side. This is the first evidence of the South's wintery temperament, which has caught up with us just moments off the ferry.

Since our last post, we've had a couple of Windy Welly days, during which time we have become completely enamoured with New Zealand's capital city. After our pleasant drive along Wellington's coastline on Friday evening, accompanied afterwards by a nightmarish quest to get pizza during which our over-dependence on TomTom began to cause problems (two closed-down pizza places, and three unnecessary journeys through the Mt. Vic tunnel later...), we returned to a campsite in the nearby Hutt Valley, where the site's owner inexplicably told us many times of his 'simplistic' ways. Maybe he was knocked out by Team Leland choosing his humble holiday park instead of the slightly superior, slightly nearer-to-the-city, and slightly easier to find campsite - where we proceeded to stay the following night - in Lower Hutt.

The following morning, exactly halfway into our camperventure, we met up with a friend of mine from Amsterdam, Liz, currently working in Wellington. She showed us around a good proportion of the Other Windy City, taking us to Nz's spectacular national museum, Te Papa, down Cuba Street with its variety of boutiques, coffee shops and trendy haunts (and the bucket fountain), and up the Cable Car to a panoramic view of the city. For the governmental, cultural and economic centre of its home country, NZ's capital was decidely underwhelming - not unlike Amsterdam - and as a result had a very youthful, positive atmosphere.

Needless to say, we found plenty to like about Welly, so much so that to leave it this morning took a bit of determination. Fortunately for us, the means by which we were to leave the city - as well as the rest of the North Island - was the Interislander ferry, which took us across the Cook Strait and neatly into our second week. The view from the ferry's deck was amazing, as we were navigated amongst dots of land jutting out from the water, until we finally pulled in to Picton.

Today, we'll find something to do in Nelson, hailed by one of our guidebooks as an alternate-lifestyle epicentre, before exploring more of the South Island's west coast tomorrow. In the meantime, here's another batch of photos from the last few days:

Me at Wai-O-Tapu, sacred geothermal waters nearby Rotorua.

Emily looking over the edge of the world.

Honey tasting on our way to Taupo.

Emily Besen: Queen of the Birds.

The two of us in front of Wellington at dusk.

Emily on the (windy) Cook Strait ferry.