Aotearoa: land of the long white cloud.... and earthquakes!

Kia ora!
And I'm not talking about citrus cordial drinks that are too orangey for crows! :) That is actually Maori for welcome, so I bid you all welcome to my sporadically updated blog. I promise to keep it a bit more up to date in future. This is nothing, I'm still 4.5 weeks behind on my actual journal! I'm getting there... it gives me something to do on lonely evenings in hostel dorms. ;)
I am currently in the capital of Aotearoa, or New Zealand for those of you who don't speak Maori. It means Land of the Long White Cloud which is very true. And those wonderful clouds here in the capital turn it into a very windy Wellington - very windy indeed along the coast. So windy you just sit back and let it carry you, there's no need for walking. Your own personal chauffeur!
I'm not exagerating either - although it's not quite that bad all the time. There are days when you can walk...
The city also boasts another natural wonder: earthquakes. And I was fortunate enough to be part of one on Friday night - at 11.45pm. It wasn't a strong one but the bunks were definitely moving. I'm sharing a dorm with a lovely Swiss girl I met on the last Kiwi bus called Franziska and we kind of looked at each other and said 'Did you feel that?' after a slight tremor and then the full quake kicked in for about a minute. New Zealand seems to be a land of firsts for me: my first trek, my first skydive and now my first earthquake!! They really were right when they said it was the extreme sport capital of the world...
It's an unusual city. It has a few nice beaches along the seafront (if the wind doesn't stop you getting to them) and there is the swanky financial district with the predictable skyscrapers, and the cute cable car that takes you to the Botanical Gardens. Most of the museums are free which is fantastic, including Te Papa, the National Museum. It's a formiddable structure, a fascinating place though chronicalling the flaura and fauna of the island, it's geography (it why there are earthquakes) and also the history of the Maori. They make nice Chai Lattes in the cafe too (which is also important).
We attended the Wellington Rover Lord of the Rings Tour yesterday which was fantastic fun. I'm not a huge fan of the films but I can appreciate the effort that went into them (I prefer the first and third films but that's a matter for debate that I'm not going to get into here cos I've heard various arguments from people when I get into this with them, but I'm sticking to my guns!) - which was a similar attitude that our tour guide Nathan had. He was an extra, an elf. He had great enthusiasm though and he really brought the locations (which are obviously back in their pre-filming state) to life. We even got to re-enact scenes which acted as photographic evidence. He had photos throughout to prove that we really were in the right place and his commentary was second to none. We even saw Peter Jackson's house and the exterior of Weta Workshop (where they did the special effects) and the post-production offices and even Peter's own studio. All of them were very unassuming. We even think we saw the wing of a plane being loaded for his new film, the remake of The Dambusters - exciting stuff. It was so exciting that I've decided to jack journalism in and camp out on Peter's lawn and ask him for a job in the film industry: that's how good our guide was!! ;)
I leave Windy Welly tomorrow and head to the South island so am looking forward to that as the scenery is supposed to be even more stunning over the water. Just keep your fingers crossed the breezes don't make the crossing too bumpy...
Sayonara til next time.
CJ X