Auckland to Wellington

The 600 km drive from Auckland to Wellington took an unbelievable 13 hours. With the winding roads, nervous drivers and 50km speed limit I’m not sure how anyone gets anywhere quickly. In places the speed limit dropped to 25km/h… I didn’t know it was possible to drive that slowly unless you were hunting for parking at a busy shopping centre.

We arrived in Wellington to find the streets full of skin-heads in death metal t-shirts all swigging beer and decided that this was definitely NOT the place for us. Then we found out it was due to a rock concert on that evening (something about Ozzy Osbourne and KISS).

Now that the Ozzy fans have cleared out it is a lot quieter although there are still a lot of students, pubs and clubs and Wellington itself doesn’t feel very family-friendly. The houses are stunning but all crammed together on the hills with no signs of any gardens or parks.

We arrived a day earlier than we’d planned and the hostel only had a dorm room available (our family room would only be free the next day). We gave Jax a call and then headed to Lowry Bay to gatecrash their friend’s dinner party. Thanks to Jax, Jane and families for their hospitality – we had a great time!

The Bays are really beautiful but we still aren’t keen on Wellington itself. It’s a pity because we’d love to be close to family and friends. If we were to settle here we’d have to take a look at the Hutt Valley or Porirua as a potential place to live.