New Zealand Part 1: Leaving Wellington

So that's me back home again after a fantastically fun trip to New Zealand for the Deep-Sea Biology Conference in Wellington and a ten-day holiday travelling around a bit of the south island before heading back home again for jetlag and Christmas! It's been a brilliant trip, with plenty of wildlife and some stunning scenery to photograph so without further ado, here are some of the highlights from the first week.

Week One: Wellington & the Deep-Sea Biology Conference

It was a pretty grey & windy week in Wellington! Click to enlarge.

The Te Papa museum

So my first week in New Zealand was spent in Wellington at the Deep-Sea Biology Symposium which I  wrote a little bit about previously. Most of the week was unfortunately pretty grey and windy which wasn't ideal for photography, even if I'd had the time to escape the conference to explore! By the end of the week, once the conference was over though it began to clear up and I had a quick half-day to run see a bit more of the city in in the sunshine before I had to catch the ferry to the south island to start my holiday!

The Wellington Parliamentary Library

Starting off at the parliamentary buildings, I wanted to find the botanic gardens. It should have been relatively simple, but I ended up wandering in a massive loop around the park before I found the cable car museum and the way in! Still, as hot and steep as the climb was it was certainly worth the effort, and even ticked another couple of Christmas presents off my list.

A blackbird in the botanic gardens

An aloe plant in the botanic gardens

A brief couple of hours later though and it was off on the ferry for a trip across the notorious Cook Strait (which was surprisingly almost flat calm) and off towards the south island to meet up with one of my friends for the next part of my explorations.

Leaving Wellington on the BlueBridge ferry

Looking across the north coast of the South Island