NZ trip 2014 - Day 18 Wellington - Lake Taupo

We just plan to have half day in Wellington. So we will have more buffer for bad weather Tongariro crossing trip cancellation.

Te Papa Tongarewa Museum

http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/

Free entrance but the parking fee almost kill me. End up rush to finish it to prevent the parking fee.

Harbourside Market - Wellington

http://www.wellingtonnz.com/discover/things-to-do/shopping/harbourside-market/

Never expected a Sunday market available. Just next to the museum, is a surprise for me as not planned and never know about it.

Dice Venison in pita pocket.

Whitebait.

Whitebait is a collective term for the immature fry of fish, typically between 25 and 50 millimetres long. Such young fish often travel together in schools along the coast, and move into estuaries and sometimes up rivers where they can be easily caught with fine meshed fishing nets. Whitebaiting is the activity of catching whitebait.
Whitebait are tender and edible, and can be regarded as a delicacy. The entire fish is eaten including head, fins, bones, and guts. Some species make better eating than others, and the particular species that are marketed as "whitebait" varies in different parts of the world.
As whitebait consists of immature fry of many important food species (such as herring, sprat, sardines, mackerel, bass and many others) it is not an ecologicially viable foodstuff and in several countries strict controls on harvesting exist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitebait 

Fisherman selling their fish on boat.

Car park at the market.

Journey to Lake Taupo

We need to rush to Lake Taupo before sunset. 371KM journey.

Random pic on the journey to Lake Taupo.

We reach Lake Taupo after sunset, so we do not take any picture. We stay at Blackcurrant Backpackers.

Blackcurrant Backpackers

Blackcurrant Backpackers.

We have our dinner at Cafe Anatolia - Authentic Turkish Cuisine

End of Day 18

Day 17   Home   Day 19

NZ trip 2014 - Day 17 Nelson - Havelock - Picton - Wellington

The Nelson Market on every Saturday morning, this is what the purpose i go Nelson.

The Nelson Market - Nelson

http://www.nelsonmarket.co.nz/

Walking distance from hostel.

The best pear juice i ever had. The reason i like to go market because market is the best place to experience the local people culture. Normally local people will only go this type of market.

Journey to Havelock

Actually we plan stop over at Havelock and have our lunch in The Mussel Pot (http://www.themusselpot.co.nz/). Night before, we call to have a reservation, only find out that they close in winter. Really bad luck, so we have no choice to try other restaurant in Havelock. Why we must stop over at Havelock? Because Havelock called greenshell mussel capital of the world.

Havelock is a coastal village in the Marlborough region of New Zealand. It sits at the head of Pelorus Sound, one of the Marlborough Sounds, and at the mouth of the Pelorus and Kaituna Rivers. The population was 486 in the 2006 Census, an increase of 12 from 2001.^[1]State Highway 6 from Nelson to Blenheim passes through the town. Queen Charlotte Drive, which provides a shorter but very winding road to Picton proceeds east along the edge of the Sounds. Canvastown is 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to the west. Renwick is 31 km (19 mi) to the south. Picton is 35 km to the east.^[2][3]Havelock is the centre for much of the New Zealand green-lipped mussel industry, and is called the greenshell mussel capital of the world.^[4] 

^{http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havelock,_New_Zealand}

http://www.slipinn.co.nz/

At last, we choose Slip Inn restaurant for the Mussel meal.

We order a Seafood Platter. Lucky it do not disappointing me. The best every mussel i had before. They claim the mussel is harvest the mussel from the sea area we can see from the restaurant. The mussel is unwashed to have the most original taste of it. Only the most fresh and most clean sea water mussel can be eaten unwashed. The mussel beard is still there. Yummy, after finish the platter, we order extra mussel. Can't stop eating it. I do not eat mussel in Malaysia or Singapore but can't stop eating it at Havelock.

You can see how big is the mussel.

We found some tiny crab with a lot of roe in the mussel.

The mussel bread.

Journey to Picton

After the great mussel meal, we continue our journey to Picton to catch the ferry to Wellington. We choose the shortest route to Picton but need to pay the price with super zig-zag road condition. Maximum speed i can drive is 40KM/H. You can try to see on Google map, you will know the reason.

Picton harbour view

Queuing to aboard the Interislander Ferry. My ferry ticket for passenger and car is included in the car rental.

https://www.interislander.co.nz/

Very excited because this is the first time i drive into the a ferry. No experience how will it like.

Inside the Ferry

All the car parked in line for easy alight.

The ferry journey across the Cook Strait need around 3 hour 30 mins. Because is a night journey, no view as it totally dark and raining. So only can seat at the bar in the ferry and wait to reach Wellington. 

This night we will be staying in Micheal house, he host (couchsurfing) us. He personally come to the harbour and guide us to his house. He do cook us a dinner as we do not have anything after the mussel meal.

Photo with Micheal

End of Day 17

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