Wellington and Auckland

Wellington and Auckland, the two cities of North Island, New Zealand!
Strangely enough we found that these two cities were actually VERY different from each other, Wellington reminded me quite a lot of the UK whereas Auckland reminded me a lot of Sydney, Australia.

We spent in total about 2 days in each city (staying in Nomad's hostels) and found plenty to do!

Auckland is a very modern city and is great for shopping and a good walk about! Wellington is a slightly less modern city full of art and culture with a host of museums and galleries to nose around. People here also seem to wonder around the streets with no shoes on strangely enough. 
Public transport was also pretty good in both cities, though Wellington was definitely easier to get around as it has a much less confusing city centre layout.

So here's a few pics to show exactly what we got up to....

Wellington city centre - I found it hilarious they had a place called Cuba for some reason! 

Red bull car in Wellington city centre.

The Weta Cave is about 15 minutes outside Wellington city centre via bus, it's great if you want to see some Lord of the Rings memorabilia.

Their homepage can be found here.

The 'Lurtz' model.

The armour worn by Sauron.

A few cheeky hobbits!

Model of gollum, great for posing with!

A fun slide we found in Wellington that made us behave like children again :P

One of the nice old buildings in Wellington near the sea front.

We didn't expect to find a burger king with such a nice old interior, apparently it's famous! And sells raspberry shweppes which happens to be amazing :)

The more modern end of Wellington city centre.

Not exactly an image of Wellington, but Tim Tams and Shapes are the way forward down under!

Down at the seafront - 'It's true you can't live here by chance you have to do and be, not simply watch or even describe. This is the city of action, the world headquarters of the verb.'

Loved this.

The seafront again, great for a breezy walk, they don't call it a windy city for nothing.

Te Papa is the national museum of New Zealand and a great day out if you're interested in learning about the history of NZ politically and environmentally, and as a bonus it's free entry!

A giant Ammonite in the museum,

Kiwis!

The colossal squid, if you've ever seen the TV programme about it, this is the same squid, it's unbelievably huge!

Couldn't resist including the sheep cam, they strapped cameras to some sheep and it shows them doing different things, sounds a bit boring but it's actually hilarious.

The Auckland harbour, a great place to chill and catch some rays.

The harbour has the best benches ever.

Auckland city centre.

Views of Auckland from the Nomad's hostel in its centre.

The most interesting ferry station, plus two crazy people :P

Views from the city harbour at night, reminds me a little of Sydney.

The famous sky tower, you can climb up and see the sites of Auckland or you can go crazy and jump off on the sky tower bungee!

The two cities of New Zealand really surprised me, Auckland is a real down under city and Wellington is so British it seems impossible that it's 11,000 miles away! Both are well worth a visit with the shopping in Auckland and the Te Papa museum in Wellington being big highlights. The shops in Auckland are very 'down under' style with loads of souvenirs  east Asian restaurants, surf shops and outdoor activity shops whereas Wellington is just a home from home with some great museums.