Wellington is on the southern tip of the North Island. It is a compact city because it sits on a large bay with its surrounding land sloping steeply up, much like San Francisco.  Several large green belts, set aside early on by the New Zealand Company, further inhibit sprawl. One challenge with this compact city is its skinny roads.  Work is being done to alleviate this, but of course the road work creates an even more white-knuckle drive.  Bob is the hero of the trip for navigating that challenge!

We loved this lively city.  Its compact nature allows pedestrians to walk everywhere to enjoy its food, coffee, shopping, and botanic garden.  Much of the Victorian architecture has been preserved, and the waterfront sparkles with boats, sleek buildings, and residents commuting on foot and bike.

Te Papa, New Zealand’s national museum, houses an excellent collection of national treasures in an impressive, modern building.  One exhibit is a heart-breaking display about New Zealand’s involvement in WWI, vividly brought to life by the personal stories of several soldiers and a nurse.

At the northern end of the South Island one encounters the Marlborough Sounds.  This is an enormous area of spectacular islands, bays, and shorelines.  Views from the shoreline are stunning, but the drive is impossibly wiggly.  Our GPS had its hands full. (Again, Bob’s driving shone!)

To get a better look at Marlborough Sounds, we tagged along with the boat service delivering mail and groceries to outlying lodges and residents who can only reasonably be reached by boat. The government pays the service a small amount to handle this route; the service bolsters its pay through curious tourists.  The scenery was sublime—steep forested islands, rustic structures, green-lipped mussel farms, we even saw blue penguins!  (No photos of those…too hard to photograph!)

But the best part was the mail delivery.  The boat pulled up to a dock, and residents—often accompanied by dogs and pigs—would exchange an empty mail sack for a full one.  Each pet received a large biscuit, which explains why they all trotted eagerly down the docks.  It was a unique, relaxing day and a good look at an entirely different way of life. 

Our dinner discussion after the tour was:  could we live like that?  Good food for thought. To spur on this conversation, we ate, of course, green-lipped mussels!

Travel Lesson Learned: AAA gives its members a free six-month membership to AA, New Zealand’s roadside assistance program.  Hmmmmm . . . I wonder how we learned that?

As always, thank you for riding along with us.  We really appreciate all of you who read this!