From Taupo, Wellington is about 220 miles, again through stunning scenery and coastal roads. Wellington, captial city of New Zealand, is known as the windy city. It's quite a busy place, but has some nice buildings, and strange ones too. The Beehive is unmistakable, and is an executive wing of the Parliament Buildings. The city is compact and easy to get around on foot.

Thorndon House is another superb place to stay whilst visiting Wellington. Only 15 minutes stroll to the centre.

To get to the South Island requires a trip on one of the Inter-Island ferries. This should be treated as a special trip in itself. It goes through some incredible Fjord type country called Marlborough Sound at the start of the South Island before docking at Picton. The trip takes just over 3 hours. It can be rough in the Cook Strait, and in fact the ferries were cancelled for over a day before our trip, but ours was almost flat !

To see more, move to the next section Kaikoura.