Tongariro Crossing and Wellington

The weather in Wellington could be a bit better. It feels a lot like home with rain and wind, chilly. That turned today into an outing at the Te Papa Museum, New Zealand's national museum. Now we find our remaining 4 days here planned around the weather. Things on our to do list include a guided tour of Parliament, a spin through the Reserve Bank Museum (sort of like the Federal Reserve Bank) and especially a tour of Peter Jackson's studios. Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Avatar and many exquisite movies were made here.

The top pic is from our fantastic hike on the Tongariro Crossing. This very active volcanic area offers a wide array of terrain over a 12.4 mile trek. We are still recovering from that one!

There is much public art as shown in the middle shot of a statue along the Wellington waterfront. Fortunately the main shopping streets have cover so we are not so impacted by the rain.

The last photo is and example of the scenery from our 2 train rides. once outside the cities we saw miles of pasture land with sheep. There are about 4.4 million kiwis (New Zealanders) and 10 times as many sheep, or so I've heard.