Skipping over Day 5 because I did nothing much and didn’t take any particularly great photos.
Day 6 was my last day in NZ, and since my flight was late at night and Steph was working, I had the day to myself. I chose to go see dolphins. 
Category: New Zealand
NZ: Day 4 – Zealandia
Day 4 was a rather cloudy, drizzly day. We planned to go to the nature reserve Zealandia today so the rain was not particularly welcome. Anyway, we headed out to catch the free shuttle bus to the park.
The bus stop near the tourist information centre has tentacles. (In honour of the colossal squid at Te Papa?)
NZ: Day 3 – Wellington
Steph and I flew to Wellington on Day 3 of my trip.
The Wellington airport declares that Wellington is the “Middle of Middle-earth.” Kind of true, if you assume the whole of NZ is Middle-earth – Wellington is more or less in the middle of New Zealand. haha
NZ: Hobbiton
Please feel free to play this Youtube vid and listen to the music as you view the pictures here. hahah (It’s the Hobbit/Hobbiton theme from Fellowship of the Ring and one of my favourite movie themes from the trilogy.)
When you arrive at Hobbiton in Matamata, this is where you go first to get your tickets:
The Shire’s Rest. You have to wait here for the bus to come and get you. They don’t allow you to wander randomly about the movie set; you have to go with a tour guide. (I think this makes sense because some people would really abuse the freedom to wander at will.)
We got here later than we were supposed to. Steph had booked tickets for a 2.30 tour but we got stuck in a massive traffic jam leaving Auckland (due to it being a public holiday – Good Friday) and what should have been a journey of 1 hour and 40 minutes turned into 3.5 hours. Really really tiresome. But we got there in the end!
NZ: Pre-Hobbiton
Exactly what the title says.
Had breakfast with Steph and her friend at a café near her place. It was a public holiday, so even though it was already about 10.30am, there were quite a number there having a leisurely breakfast in the bright morning sun.
Dunno why, but this image strikes me as being very “holiday-ish.”
Back from NZ
I don’t have half as many pictures from New Zealand as I did from Japan, but there’s still about 900 to sort out so here’s a view from my hotel room facing part of the Viaduct Harbour.
Afternoon…
… and evening.
Courtesy of the iPhone camera panorama mode. haha