It could almost be Iceland

The blog title for our little (well not so little) Icelandic friend. We have finished our time in Wellington, the capital of NZ and it only has a population of 300,000 (the same as Iceland).

This was a whistle stop tour for us and really an opportunity for Tom to meet up with Dan (his cousin).

Another YHA room with a smelly German and incidently a not so smelly German. This time it was en suite! woo! This just meant the bathroom was smaller than usual and more of a challenge to prevent the 'wet-bottom-of-jeans' situation.

We passed the time on Monday with a flight down from Auckland with Qantas and then a trip to New World, our new favourite supermarket. Suitably stocked up on food we didn't need and too much beer, we made plans to meet Dan that evening and settled in for an hour or 2 of the Olympics.

18.00 came and we wandered out into the cold and met Dan. It was great to see Tom spending time with family, as it my lot he will be subjected to in the states! A curry later and to an English pub! We came all this way to go to a pub. Pool and beer was the order of the evening. However, the evening was still young and we settled into a game of Monopoly when we returned to the YHA! What's going wrong we are turning to an old married couple. Well Tom beat me - I wasn't impressed!

Tom had found out about Weta, the people who did all the SFX for LOTR and others such as King Kong. Being LOTR country and Tom being a massive LOTR fan we headed out to their studios (the same place they mastered the film). I followed Tom in, and I thought he had walked into a land of mirrors, apparently it was Gollum!

The afternoon was spent on the famous Wellington Cable Car, interspersed with rain. A good day had in all and a jolly strole back along the harbour front to the YHA. We cooked up a treat that night again to adoring fans (we are thinking abnout writing a cook book now). Then after beer and Monopoly, where I bankrupted Tom this time, it was bed. For tomorrow we must journey into Middle Earth and all that it holds!

Now where did I put that ring...