The North Island

The ferry to Wellington is quite spectacular, as you can see in this photos.

Wellington itself is quite nice, despite being really big. It is a mountain city on the seaside, very steep streets and lots of greenery. In wellington we visited a very nice bird sanctuary and saw the last living species of dinosaur on Earth. This particular sancturay is a animal reserve in the middle of the city, you would think you ar ein the deep, deep jungle but in fact the park is designed with vary strong defenses against predators so that local species can thrive. It is a very interesting visit, a little nature in a sea of concrete.

(edit from Josele)
The Kaka, a rainforest parrot species... very inteligent and playful, not so cheeky as the Kea:

The Tuatara... It is not a lizard, but a survivor of the dinosaur era. It was able to survive in New Zealand thanks to the lack of predators:

 

In case you think it easy to spot such a non-lizard/dinosaur, try to spot the one in this picture (I'll give a hint where to look at below the photo):

(hint: try harder, you lazy piece of meat!)

This is the Tui, a rare bird famous for its very strange singing... it seemed to be eating some sort of gigantic hamburger, but at the same time it was quite beautiful:

(edit ends here)

And we finally, sadly went to leave our bikes in the rental shop in Wellington. It was sad for both of us, we have LOVED these bikes and they have loved us back. I think this bike model is the best possible option for this kind of trip and I will try as hard as I can to use these kind of bike in any future adventures.
These were the final numbers in the bike's computer, accumulated distance and maximum speed...

It is an understatement to say that after our love for the bikes, getting a shitty corean rental car was a BIG letdown...

The only good thing I can say about the car is that it is going to take us to our last destination, and that is no mean feat, the landscape in the north island is beautiful but not very flat...

The parallels with the Lord of the Rings are becoming more and more clear, so...

If we are on a quest in Middle Earth, where are we trying to get?

Exactly.