Stop 11 & 12: Picton and Wellington

I headed back up to Picton for a day to do a wine tour. I was going to the first time I was there, but I was still sick and since I had to come back through I figured I would wait until I was healthy. So I went and did my wine tour only to find out I was the only person who had signed up for it that day. Being the only person on a wine tour is a really interesting experience. I had one on one conversations with all of the hosts and since I was the only one they let me try all the different wines. Without other people there wasn't much downtime and we managed to get in 7 wineries, a liquor shop and a chocolate shop. We also had a really nice lunch at one of the wineries.

I came back to the hostel, had dinner and hung out with the other people at the hostel. One of them decided we should try and go find a bar, so I joined along and ended up running into an American (what are the odds out of the 6 people in the bar). When I mentioned I was trying to do yacht design he mentioned he actually had a friend working in design for one of the big companies and put me in touch with him. That friend put me in touch with his boss and said he was leaving around October and they would probably need someone to replace him, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

The next morning I woke up thinking I needed to be at the ferry at 10:45. I was taking my sweet time getting ready and decided to double check the ferry time. It was actually 9:45 and i checked the time to find it 9:40. I was still unpacked, in my pajamas and had to walk to the ferry. I'm not quite sure how I did it, but I made it with only leaving my toothbrush and toothpaste behind.

I got into Wellington to find that all the friends I left there a month ago were all still there. The first night I hung out with Laura and her new friends. In the following few days, I went back to the Te Papa museum to see an exhibit I had missed the first time and sat around in the sunshine and read. Wellington has an amazing public space with beautiful benches and bridges and general public space. Its known as the artiest city in NZ. With friends, and beautiful weather and a beautiful city I did not want to leave (and got sucked into staying a few extra days). If I didn't want to be in Auckland for yacht design, I would probably choose to live in Wellington. One day you could actually consider it to be hot and we went down to the beach and laid in the sun and stuck out legs in the water. Mark chose to actually get all the way in.

my favorite bridge in Wellington. Its kinda hard to see, but its a VERY artsy wooden bridge.

Mark and Glyn trying to do cartwheels on the beach. Yes, we actually got to wear shorts!

Wellington Harbor