One of the major problems in traveling from Nelson to Auckland in the space of three days is that it leaves you very little time to appreciate the towns you go through on your way. Picton, Wellington and Rotorua have all passed in a blur of travel leaving us just enough time to check in to our hostels, grab a camera and do a brief dusk/night tour of both the capital city of New Zealand and one of the more reputed picturesque locations on the North Island.
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| So much win! |
That being said, we still came across some quietly brilliant finds. A night out in Wellington, once we'd got off the ferry, involved stops at the cocktail bar Matterhorn, with the best stocked bar I have ever seen and a bartender who took some real joy in his work, along with the “biggest student bar” in Wellington, which featured a wheel of fortune, guess the right colour an your beers were free.
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| Badger's Piss and Peanuts |
The award for “Bar of the night”, if not of the trip so far has to go to The Bangalore Polo Club, where one can enjoy a pint of Badger’s Piss Beer along with all the free peanuts you can handle. You take your pint glass full of peanuts (complete with shell) and shell them at your table, throwing the shells to the floor. Wandering in at midnight produces an experience akin to visiting the monkey house at London Zoo, in the best possible way of course.
Onward to Rotorua, via a shocking Intercity coach ride that delayed us by over 2 hours, where we found a waterfront and a night market both worthy of checking out. The market provided dinner, with the finest brownie either Marv or I have ever encountered (apologies to Ellie Jackson, now maker of the second finest brownie in the world). Marv was so bowled over he almost proposed to the stand’s proprietor on the spot. Also, for a night of great blues music and niche beers, heading over to The Belgian Bar was a good move, where the manager Peter was more than happy to chat about how the Irish had drank him completely dry.
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| The view from Rotorua |
Make it to Auckland we did though, in spite of the tightness of our schedule, and we finally got to the purpose of this whole trip thus far; England vs Scotland at the incredible Eden Park. I will blog about Auckland separately, as it deserves a chapter to itself, but it’s struck me as an incredible city with the kind of all-night partying that can leave a man as a shell of himself…
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