welly welly

Day eight: Wellington.

First of all, let me just go on a brief tangent. I love Auckland. Auckland is home. I know the city. I have a fabulous time here. Most people turn their noses up at Auckland, call it “just another big city,” and blow it off. I like to make a music analogy when it comes to Auckland. You know how you get introduced to a band on one particular album, and you love that album wholeheartedly, and eventually you branch out to the band’s other albums, but that one album was the one that made you fall in love with them. And then someone goes and says, “OH NO that album is crap! This other album is SO much better!” But you’re like, “Yeah, whatever, I guess that other album could be objectively “better,” but this album here is the one that made me fall in love with the band, and it’ll always hold a special place in my heart.” Auckland is that first album. Yes there are many, many other cities in New Zealand with more unique sights and interesting natural phenomena and adventure sports. But it turns out that city life suits me pretty well. So I had a feeling I’d like Wellington.

Wellington is the capital and third-largest city in NZ. There’s a lot to do, so we planned to stay an extra night and catch the next bus. That way we’d also get to kiss the sucky bus goodbye. We’d gotten a tip that the hostel that the bus drivers are supposed to recommend as the “preferred” hostel by the company is actually kind of gross, so we picked another hostel. And this one featured free dinner every night. What?!? Cheap room, clean bathrooms, AND free dinner? Over our stay we had curry, veggie lasagna, and pizza. FOR FREE. And to top it all off, we were in a six-bed dorm, and we never had any roommates. I guess that’s the beauty of travelling in winter.

Wellington was the last city on the circuit, and we were feeling pretty tired. We’d had tons of fun and spent way plenty of money, and we were winding down into home mode. But we managed to have a couple of nice walks, ride the Wellington cable car, visit the Botanical Gardens, and get a couple of piercings. Wellington is darling.