We left the south island in a bit of a hurry and a bit of a strop. On reflection, maybe we should have hung-in for a few more days in Picton to do a great wreck dive and get some yacht sailing in. Squiffy wouldn’t have typed that last sentence — she’s had it with the south!

Anyway, here we are in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. The rain has cleared up significantly, it’s a human-sized arts and culture city which takes its coffee seriously and there’s plenty of people around — in short, it’s glorious! Long gone is the wet wilderness with only sheep to talk to! It’s funny you know, almost everyone I’ve spoken to prefers the south island to the north, but right now we’re both feeling happier to have crossed the Cook Strait. Funnier still is the fact that I named this blog “Escape the City”, and escaping the city is what the south island is about in every way. Perhaps I should have named the site “Escape London City to a Slighter Smaller, but Still Vibrant City” dot com.

The small bummer is that the nearest campsite is a little way out of the centre, which is always the way with camping and cities. All the hostels in town are expensive or full and there’s nowhere to safely leave the car. But it doesn’t matter at all because we’re back in civilisation again: there’s traffic jams, queues at the checkouts and we can hardly see the stars at night for the light pollution — and we’re loving it!