Christchurch is the oldest city in New Zealand. It officially received the status of a city in 1856. The town has preserved buildings from those times, many century-old trees, species unknown to me, growing for hundreds of years. In 2010 and 2011 Christchurch was hit hard by earthquakes and most of the historic buildings were destroyed. Now the city is just beginning to climb out of this disaster. It is noteworthy that one of the first buildings rebuilt after the earthquakes was the Art Gallery building.

After being in the hills of Picton for almost 5 hours, I was already strongly wishing I could sit for longer. And such pleasure was provided to me by a transportation company with the interesting name of Nakedbus. The name is so "borderline foul" that one US hosting provider abruptly banned me by IP just for trying to write that word on a New Zealand forum 🙂

So, uh. ahead of me was to enjoy the views of New Zealand from the windows of a naked bus for 6 hours. I can tolerate such long sit-ups easily enough, so I wasn't even worried. In fact, it turned out that on the way the views were so enchanting that I forgot to realize that it was practically pointless to take photos from the bus window, and shot the whole way without stopping. In 6 hours about 180 frames were accumulated, of which 30 and a penny were more or less suitable for publication.

The next day thoroughly fueled by muesli and toast with jam at the Sequoia Backpackers hostel I rolled out the sun, dispersed the clouds and went to photograph Picton again. I had four hours before the bus to Chöch. Picton is home to a very large hub of hiking trails, they all start here. I googled a trail to Waikawa Bay from which you can turn back to Picton at about the halfway point.

The first rain during my stay in Wellington was on the day I sailed to Picton, before which it had been sunny and rain-free all week. The process of boarding the ferry is similar to that of an airplane, only the luggage is not screened, and so everything is like the big iron birds - check-in, waiting in another hall and passing through the teletrap. The most exciting thing for me was that I was going traveling alone, and, as it turned out, with virtually no knowledge of English. Sure I could buy food and knew what to yell once I was overboard, but 99% of what was said to me I didn't understand a damn thing 🙁

Scraped through my coffers and picked up more Wellington photos of all sorts. There are some evening ones, there is Cuba Street, airplanes, another panorama with Welliwood’s stone marshmallows, flowers and sea creepers… stay tuned. We're going to warm up in Picton next.

Makara Beach is located 20 kilometers from Wellington. It is one of the windiest places in New Zealand. The coastal cliffs rise over 100 meters above the sea, giving a good view of the Tasman Sea. This point is very convenient for building defensive structures, which were erected there during World War II. There are no cannons there now, only concrete fortifications remain. The 6km walking route passes through a wind farm, but we didn't get there due to lack of preparation… Simply put, without food and water it is better not to go there on foot, despite «only 6 kilometers»

One weekend it was decided to go to pretend we are the «National Geographic» filming crew and see wild animals in their natural habitat. The goal of the trip were to see seals, who have taken up residence just 5 kilometers from Wellington. Buses run to the coast, but beyond that we had to walk on foot. But walking through such beauty - it's a pleasure!

After the botanical garden, we walked along the waterfront to grab some food.

The next day it was decided to go to the botanical garden, and the weather was gorgeous!

When I landed in Wellington on Saturday evening, I had already crossed nine time zones heading east. Usually, people take three days to a week to recover from such a jet lag. But as a long-time reader of Exler, I knew about the magical pills — Melaxen — that help the body adjust to drastic time zone shifts. I decided to give them a try. The effect was incredible! The next morning, I woke up at 8 AM feeling like I hadn’t traveled at all. Great stuff; highly recommend!