be sure to rollover ‘notes’ to see photo captions!

We drove to Picton and toured the ship ‘Edwin Fox’ and its museum. It was really interesting, and being able to walk around the ship itself really gave some perspective to ocean travel.

We got in the vehicle queue for the Cook Strait ferry and I took a nap. We were finally able to drive aboard the huge cargo/passenger boat and enjoyed a picturesque cruise through the sounds. We ate aboard the ferry and had plenty of time to relax.

In Wellington, the NZI Sevens were on, so crazily-dressed rugby fans filled the streets on the way to the stadium. It made for great people-watching as we negotiated the downtown streets. We took the cable car up to the Wellington Botanical Gardens and walked around the observatory and Lady Norwood Rose Garden. We ate at the restaurant in the garden, then drove to the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary for our nighttime tour.

The tour was great and very educational – we saw tree wetas and tuataras and heard some little spotted kiwi, but didn’t catch a glimpse of them. Our guide was fantastic and had plenty of information about the animals and plants around us. We got to see some glowworms up close too! In the beams of our red-light flashlights we could even see the long sticky threads the glowworms – really larvae – use to ‘fish’ for insects.

When we got to the hotel the insect bites on my leg which had been bothering me since Milford Sound seemed a lot worse – hot to the touch, swollen and purple – so Mom took me to the after-hours clinic. Sure enough, my leg was ‘quite infected’ so I was prescribed a load of antibiotics, both oral and topical.