Ack! A major city!

Wellington is the first major city we've been to since our two days in Auckland at the very beginning of our trip (6 weeks ago!). At this stage of our trip it's like culture shock all over again. We aren't surrounded by tourists. The locals are busy going about their business. There are more roads and highways, so navigation is more confusing (just figuring out how to leave the ferry terminal took some time!), and all of the roads are busier. We are no longer on the South Island, so some brands (though admittedly not too many) at the supermarket are different. Some of the birds at our campground are different too! There is one that looks like a black and white seagull (literally like a seagull wearing a tuxedo) and makes a curious sound like an 80's robot noise.

We are staying in the suburb of Lower Hutt, which has its own downtown. Riding here seemed too scary (there might be a cycle trail but we aren't sure) and the ferry stop nearby was damaged in November's earthquake so the commuter rail was our best option. So many public transport options! Refreshing and completely overwhelming all at once.

Adding to the mental stress is the fact that we are lacking a solidified plan for the rest of our trip from here on out. Seems like a rental car will be most efficient to string together the stops we desire, but we haven't been into the city to make our reservation yet. There is an interesting cycle trail that starts here (the Rimutaka Cycle Trail), but we don't have solid intel on track conditions in certain sections that are rated more for mountain bikes, and whether the road that links the end of the trail back to the start (since the trail forms 7/8 of an oval shape) is rideable. So, we have a number of fact finding missions on tap for tomorrow (we will take the train or bus into the city)...but first we're going to sleep in!

No interesting photos to share just yet; we were too focused on reading our maps and figuring out the train and finding our campsite and then reading our maps some more to get out to tourist information (they were, perhaps unsurprisingly, not very helpful with or obscure cycle track questions) and out to the grocery store and back again. But now we have a better handle of where we are and what's going on, so we'll have more interesting news tomorrow :)