1/11/2011 - The Sunshine Capital

On my last night in Picton, we actually had Auflauf again, which was lovely.

We sat and ate, and more people turned up. That night we went to the Irish bar to watch a band called The Shop. We gained a few people, Rob, Lucy and Steve and we spent a couple of hours there until we went back to the hostel and Matt played some guitar. It was a nice last night, really nice.

The next morning, I got to lay-in (no work!) then updated Hayley on the gossip over some laundry, wrote in Cheryl's book then it was pretty much time to go. Got the shuttle to the ferry terminal to find it was running late and wouldn't get in for another hour and a half, which meant my bus wouldn't come until then either. Hayley, being lovely, waited with me, so we sat and talked in the lovely sunshine and I done a quick change in the back of the van when I realised a jumper was not the right clothing choice for the day.

The bus finally came at 1.30pm, I slept for the whole 2 hour journey since I'd only got about 2 hours sleep the night before. Got into Nelson and decided to stay at Paradiso instead of Tasman Bay, since the girls will be staying here when they come tomorrow. (Very excited about this!) Spent the night reading and Skyping Nikki, where I got my first look at beautiful baby Sophie and it caught me totally of guard but I couldn't help but cry - happy tears of course - but I just was not expecting it one bit!

Yesterday, Rob and I arranged to meet around midday, so I spent the morning using the library's free wifi to Skype Mum and Vicki then headed of in the lovely sunshine towards the cathedral. It's pretty spectacular on the outside, the bell tower is all open. Rob was running a bit late, so I laid in the sun on the grass listening to the radio from my phone, which was just gorgeous. Rob turned up and we hung out there for a while, chatting and apparently also having a grass fight! We decided to have a look around the cathedral, but sadly it was so as impressive inside as on the outside, I really did want to play their beautiful grand piano though.

We wandered around for a bit, and Rob suggested going up to the Centre of New Zealand. It's a place that has been proclaimed as the centre point of the whole country. Sounds good. What I failed to realise is that it was up a pretty steep hill. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll know that the only thing I dislike about NZ is hills. Norfolk has no hills, I'm not used to them. I'll walk all day on level ground, but put me on a hill and I'll be tired in 5 minutes. Rob, on the other hand, is of very good fitness. I am not. So it was hilarious me walking up this hill for around 20 minutes, demanding breaks and stopping to 'look at the sights'. But we got there, and sat at the top admiring the view and talking in the sun for a good hour. 

When we walked down, we went and got a coffee at Starbucks and I got a Wildberry Slice since I hadn't eaten yet. I'm glad I've gone back to having only a little appetite after having the biggest appetite last week and apparently never being full, it's so much cheaper this way and with the amount of walking I'm doing, I'm hopefully losing a bit of weight too that I gained from having chocolate pudding every night in Picton.

So we sat in Starbucks for about an hour, talking about education and politics and current affairs, it was all very civilised! We went to the iSite to look into the Abel Tasman walk (for him, not me!) and then popped into the AA since Rob misplaced his license but wanted to see if he could still rent a car, the answer was no. It was getting towards 5pm by now, so after a cheeky Burger King (again for him, not me...okay I had a couple of his fries) I walked back to my hostel for some dinner. We decided that since it was Halloween we should either go for a drink or at least do something, we decided on Paranormal Activity 3 at the cinema. 

I had a boring couple of hours, done some laundry, had some free soup, took a shower and got ready. Lost my shampoo when I knocked it out of the shower window into the gutter below. I must say that I looked awesome last night, you know those nights where your hair and make-up goes just right? I had one of those nights. 

Met Rob at the cinema at five to nine. The screen was tiny, even smaller than GY cinema, and there weren't many people there either. I was scared. The movie was scary. Well, maybe not scary but jumpy, very very jumpy. Rob will deny it, but at one point he jumped too! Me being a jumpy person in everyday life, I spent a good portion of the second half hiding. 

We tried to get a drink after the movie, but all the bars were closed. It was 10.30pm on Halloween, Nelson, come on! Unbelievable! So instead, Rob taught me how to play chess. I am now an expert. Okay I'm not an expert but I at least know the basics. Walked back at 1.40am but only slept until 8am since the girl who introduced herself as "metal through and through" to me decided to play electric guitar at 8am and the French guys were very very loud when they were packing, I almost wished I'd made loads of noise when I got back late last night, honestly.

Today the weather is pretty rubbish, rainy and stuff, so I've been reading and writing this. Matt's no longer coming to Nelson, which sucks, but the girls should be coming tomorrow which is awesome! 

Good times had by all!

29/10/2011 - The Sad Tale of the Breakup of the Wodka Club

It was decided, after around 5 minutes of deliberation (questions like.. will it save me money? Can I work more days?) I had chosen to stay in Picton for two extra days. Truth is, it's the people that make a place and Cheryl, Hayley, Matt and Dave (even though he left...), also known as the Wodka Club, are awesome and I wasn't ready to leave yet. Plus it worked out well because I could save some money!

Wednesday was a lazy day since it was absolutely chucking it down with rain, we only ventured out to go to the supermarket. In fact, we seem to go to the supermarket everyday. We got a lift with the boys in the shuttle van so we didn't get soaked through and made a stop at SuperLiquor for more vodka too. Matt told us he would cook for us, he made Auflauf which was really nice, kind of like a vegetable bake with cheese and cream, really really tasty. This set us up nicely for a night of drinking, giggling and a lethal game of Ring of Fire. It was Dave's last night, so a fair bit of hugging and "Don't gooooooo!"'s happened too. Of course, there was the now obligatory singing and guitar playing too.

Me, Hayley and Bjorn

Matt, Cheryl and Dave

During Ring of Fire

Drunk?

Matt: What's a cuddle? Us: This is a cuddle!

To the Wodka Club!

Dave left in the morning and we were all very sad. We had another lazy day after work, the weather wasn't great again, but there was obviously a trip to the supermarket, for pizza and chips this time. Thursday night was chilled, we just sat around and watched Scary Movie 3. Yesterday we had a wander around town, and again went to the supermarket. I made a vegetable lasagne last night which turned out pretty well apart from the pasta was a bit hard - boo! Politely though, everyone said it added to the texture, I think they're just being nice but whatever. We'd been to the movie store to rent a couple of DVDs for yesterday night but they wanted $50 bond since we weren't members - what a joke! After a little eye-flattering though, the guy agree to keep my passport as an assurance we weren't going to run off with his movies. Looking back on this, I probably shouldn't be so keen to give my passport over to someone I don't know. We ended up renting All Good Things with Ryan Gosling in it and Let Me In. Both were supposed to be quite scary, they weren't. All Good Things really was good though, based on a true story. I fell asleep on the couch during Let Me In, just like I'd done the night before. I wonder where I get that from, hey Mum? ;)

This morning I did all the laundry which was quite relaxing really, I don't mind laundry. I move on tomorrow to Nelson, where I can hopefully finally get my jeans fixed and find a library to use their internet. Because of work every morning, I haven't been able to get to the library in time for the time difference to be right to Skype home, so hopefully next week it will all work out a bit better. I better go do some packing really since the others have gone to return the DVDs (and hopefully get my passport back) and get groceries for tonight's dinner, Matt's cooking Currywurst on the barbecue, no idea what that is, but I guess it has something to do with curry and sausage, oh German is so funny. Oh and I'm now finished work - woo!

24/10/2011 - I have never... AND 26/10/2011 - Fire in the Oven

It's been a fun couple of days, alcohol-fuelled and fun.

On Saturday we mostly hung around the hostel, and in the evening had the plan to get in the hot tub with some beers and have a little chill out. It was lovely and hot but the night was cold, making the water even nicer. Couldn't really figure out how to make the bubbles work, but I queued up a playlist and it was was lovely. Matt and Dave joined us a little later and then two guys from New Zealand turned up and offered around their beer and stash. All in all a relaxing night, even nicer when Matt got his guitar out afterwards and we all had a sing.

Trying to keep the cold beer out of the hot pool!

Yesterday morning I helped Cheryl do the beds and rubbish jobs, which is pretty self explanatory in that you change the beds and take out the rubbish. We decided to go to the museum yesterday, but it would of cost $10 just to see some old ships - not interested. Instead Cheryl, Hayley, Matt and I went to the Aquarium which was right next door. Saw a giant squid body, a stingray and petted a lizard, a pretty cool way to spend an hour or so. We wandered around Picton for a bit before settling down for dinner and chocolate pudding back at the hostel. Whether it was the sugar rush from the pudding or from the shot of Jaeger I don't know, but I was suddenly really psyched for the RWC final which was that night. We'd made plans to go to The Flying Haggis, a Scottish pub we found on the main highstreet, so after getting a little bit dressed up we all left, with two additions who I'd apparently invited from the kitchen in my pudding stupor.

The game was amazingly close, with only two tries scored the whole match. The French played well, admittedly, but the All Blacks deserved that win and even though I am obviously not from NZ, even I felt a little emotional for them, you could see how much it meant to them to win, on their home turf, after 24 years.

Go the All Blacks!

We then realised how ridiculously under-prepared we were for an All Blacks win - we hadn't bought any more alcohol! This being New Zealand, and no less Picton, everything was closed at 11.15pm on a Sunday. We found ourselves dreaming of 24hr Tesco on every corner. Nowhere seemed to have any alcohol at all, so we'd decided we'd have a dry party back at the hostel, which we had to go back to since Hayley was on night duty and drinking out is very expensive. We'd pretty much given up, until when we were only about 200m from the hostel, Hayley spotted a bit, red illuminated sign that said 'Tui' on it and she remembered that was the beer that the NZ guys had had the night before. It was across the playing field that seperates the hostel and other things, almost like a town square, so me and Cheryl ventured over to discover a pub we'd never even known was there. Furthermore, it was a pub that was happy to sell us a big bottle of vodka and two big bottles of Coke - result! We marched back over to the rest, holding the vodka as if it were the World Cup trophy itself, and hilarity ensued. Joined by Stefano from Chile, Dave from Canada and some French guy, there were ten of us all together and we started off a game of 'I Never...'. If you've never played I never (which you really should...) it's a drinking game where each person in turn says "I have never...." then finishes with an action, eg "I have never... done a bungy jump." If you have done that thing, you have to have a drink. Of course, like all good drinking games it descends into the realms of sex, drugs and rock'n'roll eventually, the more you drink. We done another couple of trips over to the pub to top up on alcohol and moved onto playing 'Fuck the Dealer' before eventually deciding to move inside to listen to more guitar playing and singing along. Canadian Dave had a little dance, whilst the rest of us had a sing along to either Matt or German Dave playing. Between them, they played for a good three hours and the next thing we knew it was 4.30am, which made us all very awake that we all had work in the morning. Time for bed. I'd moved rooms that day so literally all of my things were on my bed, so I spent a good ten minutes gently lifting things to the floor without waking the others in the room.

Drunken smiles

Dave and Cheryl

Guitar times - Matt's a genius!

This morning felt like death, I didn't realise how drunk I'd been last night until I woke up at 7am this morning feeling like my brain had collapsed. Since the famed 2008 pick'n'mix incident, I've made a point of avoiding vodka at all costs, now I remember why. Went into the kitchen for breakfast and was greeted by similar looking people from the night before, all nursing hangovers and shaking our heads at each other, each of us knowing we had to work. I was on beds again today, not too bad except Yuki seems convinced to tell me everything I do is wrong but hey ho, I was probably a lot more easily annoyed due to the fact that I was being attacked from every angle by the hangover. I didn't have it bad though, poor Cheryl was on bathrooms this morning, a direct quote from Cheryl - "I wanted to puke cleaning those toilets, how can you lose that many pubes to the toilet when they're only here for one night!?" - In context, we had a massive tour group descend on us last night and then leave again this morning, leaving destruction in their path, it was a nightmare.

After work we decided the best cure would be to go and have fish and chips from Mr Chips (yep, he's here in Picton too!) and then do some shopping for the staff meal tonight. Once a week, Mike gives the staff $30 to cook a big meal between them to share, so tonight Cheryl, Hayley and I are cooking a Sunday (Monday) roast and the others are doing the dishes afterwards. I'm going to go make some Yorkshires now, so I'll be speaking to you all soon.

Oh oh, and a very exciting thing happened today, my beautiful best friend Nikki had her second little girl. I'm so happy for her and so so proud, I can't wait to see pictures. Love you Nikki! xxx

Well, I finished writing this on the 24th but then forgot to post it or upload any pictures, so rather than write it all over again, I'll add to the bottom of this! - 26/10/2011


I'll start by telling you that the roast dinner was mostly successful, except for that we did set the oven on fire. See, what was happening is that the butter from the yorkshires tray was dripping to the bottom and smoking, so we thought we'd put some tinfoil in the bottom to catch the drips, sensible no? Anyhow, the butter got on the tinfoil and apparently got too hot and set on fire. We didn't realise this until we checked the chicken and as Cheryl closed the oven again, I saw a glimpse of flame. It went something like this...

Me: I'm pretty sure I just saw fire in there!Cheryl: (Thinks whatever but checks anyway) Shit! The oven's on fire! Get Mike, get Mike!


Hilarity ensues, after the initial turn-off-the-fire-alarm-open-the-windows panic and miraculously, none of the food was ruined, although the yorkshires were slightly singed. So the meal was nice, if a little cold (silly roast dinner timings) though I think the Asian girls were a bit unsure of it. But everyone ate it and Matt even had seconds so it couldn't of been that bad at all.

Yesterday we worked and then after sitting about for a bit, had a game on Monopoly. Now, Monopoly always starts off being a good idea, but you soon remember how it has the ability to break friendships and after an hour of playing the atmosphere was tense. I like to take full advantage of the rule where if the next player has rolled, you can no longer claim rent if you missed it. So when I rolled a double and landed on Matt's hotel-ed yellows, I was happy to have rolled quickly enough to avoid the $1000 rent. He was not so happy, and was pretty mad, probably understandably. Everyone started to get Monopoly exhaustion and we finished the game, declaring Matt the winner... I'm not sure I've ever played a full game of Monopoly.

Last night was nice and chilled out. I made Hayley, Cheryl and I steak in pitta breads for dinner and then we hung out with Dave and Matt in the hot tub. Dave had been to see Jan which meant we could have a little smoke too and we just sat and looked up at the stars, told scary stories and asked questions like "Would you rather be an arm or a leg?" Also, I saw a shooting star and yes I did make a wish.

Today the weather is dreadful, chucking it down, so I'm in front of the fire with a cup'a'soup and a copy of Cosmo, lovely. One more day of work then I'm off to Nelson of Friday, sad to leave my new friends.

 

22/10/2011 - Sequoia Lodge Backpackers

The ferry crossing went by without any real interest. I went and sat in the bar and listened to the band that were playing for a bit, then read my book for the rest of the journey. I did venture out onto the observation deck to take these pictures though, it was extremely windy out there! The views of the Marlborough Sounds as we came into Picton were beautiful, but unfortunatly my camera ran out of batteries on the approach.

Coming into the Marlborough Sounds

When I got into Picton, I seemed to wait for what seemed like forever at baggage claim, watching strange things go past. Because it's a ferry and not a plane, people had checked all kinds of things, including a very very large bag of carrots! I'd been told to look for a red van, which I found and was greeted by a German guy called Dave. We waited for another passenger then set off to Sequoia Lodge. I met Mike when I got here, the owner. Regular readers will remember (hopefully) who Mike is from a post I made in Texas. He's the one who lived in Overstrand for 8 years and taught at Great Yarmouth High, Acle High and of course my school, Cliff Park! I can't say I recognise him, but that doesn't mean anything since he could have taught a subject I didn't take, or since he was a sub, a set I wasn't in. We chatted about Great Yarmouth a bit and England in general, then he showed me my room. Staff generally stay in the staff dorms, but I'd been put in a double room behind the laundry room. This suits me perfectly, because I get my own room/double bed, and I like the smell of the tumble-drier. I'm pretty sure I'll get moved into the dorm on Sunday though, when another member of staff leaves and there's a bed free, so I'm going to make the most of it whilst I can.

After I'd dumped my pack, I made a cup of tea and met two girls called Cheryl and Hayley. Cheryl is from Scotland and Hayley is from Yorkshire. Got on with the girls pretty instantly so we chatted for a while and we all went into town together to look around and go to the supermarket. Picton is a really nice little town, we walked down what seemed to be the main street, noticing the really creepy massive white cross that had been mounted on the hillside. It looked like something out of a horror movie, no joke. We looked in a few touristy shops and I bought some envelopes to send my letters home, and then we reached the 'beach'. I say it like that because it really was tiny, probably not even the width of a one lane road and not very long either. But the water was lovely and blue, with people swimming and there was lots of grass for picnics and sunbathing. We wandered up the other side of the street and found a Scottish pub, funny since they're usually Irish pubs here. We also found a bead shop, full of glass beads. Gabrielle was right when she said I'd look at beads differently, I found myself thinking "I know how to make that...".

See the little beach where those people are? That's how small it is.

After we'd done our shopping, and I'd dropped a six pack of yoghurt all over the supermarket floor, we headed back past the creepy cross to the hostel. There wasn't much going on, so we made an early dinner. I made some pasta with my aubergine left over from the vege lasagne and some garlic, with some chicken I got from the supermarket deli. It was pretty nice really. We realised we'd forgotten beer, so we trekked back to the liquor store and got some Coronas and some limes. Well, they were limes in the end, but they were yellow, very strange. Had a couple of drinks back at the hostel whilst realising it was supposed to be the rapture (again) and decided that if the world was going to end we might as well get wasted and go out with a bang. We drank some more, and sang along whilst the guys played the guitar, but come 8pm we had to help serve up the chocolate pudding. Oh yeah, that's another reason this hostel is amazing, the guests get free hot chocolate pudding and ice cream every night! Post-pudding, the drinking continued and we hung out with two guys from Germany before going to see how the rugby was going since it was getting chilly outside. It was getting a bit late, and since I'd been up since 6am I decided it was time for bed, but not before we made some cheese toasties, lush. 

This morning I got up at 9am and helped myself to some free breakfast! Work starts at 10am, so after checking my email real quick, I was assigned to 'Odd Jobs', which today involved getting fingerprint marks off of things like doors and windows. That only took an hour, so I spent the second hour helping Hayley out in the kitchen. The work is pretty easy, and it's only two hours a day, so I definitely can't complain. We had 'cookie time' about 12.15pm, apparently a daily thing where us staff sit and drink tea and eat cookies, again no complaints from me! So now here I am. Hayley and Cheryl have gone to buy some things for dinner, we're going to share some mince nachos with salsa, sour cream and avocado which I think will be delicious. I had a snoop on the 'swap-a-book' shelf and found Barack Obama's book "Dreams from My Father", so I swapped out one of my books for it since I think it will be a really good read.

The girls just got back and I'm going to make some lunch... I bought myself a cooler bag since I saw lots of people in hostels have them and it's just nice to have all your food together really. Here's some pictures of the hostel too!

The Laundry Double

Courtyard

Anyone for giant chess?

Hot tub

TV Room/Make-shift Cinema

Reception

Kitchen

Lounge

21/10/2011 - The Interislander

As I type this to you all I'm sitting in Cafe Oliveto on deck 7 of the ferry which will shortly take me across the Cook Strait to Picton. The company is called the Interinslander whilst this specific boat is the Kaitaki. Pointless information out of the way, I'll get on with telling you what I've been up to.

My last two days have been a bit more interesting that those before them, mostly because my homesickness lifted marginally which made me actually want to go out. After I had written to you on Wednesday evening, Gabrielle came home and asked if I wanted to make some glass beads! Of course I did! She showed me her garage workshop where she had all the different coloured glass, the tools and the blowtorch attached to her desk. As I try and describe it I really wish I had taken some pictures. First, I was taught how to make a basic bead, by heating up to glass rod slowly so it doesn't crack, then heating up the mandrel, then almost wrapping the melted glass onto the bead release (away from you, just incase). Melted glass has a really strange viscosity to work with, almost like honey. After getting a pretty good bead, I was shown how to make different patterns on the bead using stringers (thinner glass rods). I made one with dots, one with dragged swirls, and a couple of other ones. All in all, it was really fun, and Gabrielle is so talented, I watched her make a little sheep, it was perfect. The next night, I made most of my beads into jewellery with Gabrielle's regular beads.

Purple and Blue Dots

Blue with Orange Bumps

Purple Base Bead with Bubbles

Heart Shaped Bead

Yesterday I fully intended on being in the CBD early to meet Selina for lunch, but that didn't work out. I ended up getting on the train about 1pm and got into CBD at 1.30pm, too late for lunch but enough time for Selina to pop out for a ciggy to see me and give me a little tour. She took me up to the cable car, which I was going to ride, but decided to have some lunch first. Found a little cafe and sat and read The Lost Symbol whilst having a hot chocolate and a wrap, it was a nice day to just sit and read. 

I took a scenic wander back through Wellington to the train station, and to my disappointment they wouldn't give me a student fare this time. Anyway, I decided not to tackle the hill but instead pay the $2 to get the bus. Lazy? Probably, but that hill was not my friend. I spent 2 hours back at the house doing some work, which I was there for, sorting fastenings into packs whilst listening to Harry Potter.

When Gabrielle and Dan came home, Gabrielle said she was making some cheese to go into dinner, (Yes, making some cheese, from scratch!) and asked if I wanted to help. It's a funny thing cheese making... getting the milk to the right temperature, adding the enzymes (the same enzymes that are in a calves stomach, by the way), straining it through the cheese cloth and then boiling the curds in the whey, and finally putting it in brine. It was very strange to see the liquid milk turn to solid cheese before your eyes. Very strange indeed. It was halloumi that we made, to go in the curry for dinner, and it was lovely and squeaky (the sign of a good halloumi, apparently!) Last night being my last night with Gabrielle and Dan, Gabrielle and I sat around making jewellery and just chatting. I tried to get an early night due to my 6am start this morning (ew.) but of course that didn't happen... oh well. The 6am start, on the other hand, did happen, so I was packed, breakfasted and ready to go by 7am. The ferry is starting to move now, it's a 3 hour ferry journey so I'm going to lurk around on Facebook and see if I can catch anyone from home.

Here's some fun stuff for you;

(Source:  thedailywh.at)

19/10/2011 - Planning and Tea

I'm feeling quite a bit better today, thanks for sticking with me through my moany homesick days!

I ended up not going out today, even though the weather was acceptable. I woke up at 9am but got that rare feeling where you're unbelievably comfy. You know, that feeling when it's December in England, and you have to get up for school or work, so suddenly your bed has never seemed comfier? Well today I got that, but the luxary of this trip is that I don't have school or work - success! So I snuggled down and dozed, not totally asleep but almost daydreaming and remembering my dreams from the night before. I really need to stop falling asleep when I'm listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks, because I keep dreaming I'm in them. I fell back asleep until 1pm when the property inspector woke me up. Not by knocking on the door, but by opening my actual bedroom door. It's not that I hadn't been warned, I knew he was coming, but in my sleepy, dozing euphoria I'd forgotten. It's been a while since I've slept in until 1pm. We all know I'm very capable of sleeping all day, that's been proved in the past, but I haven't actually done it for quite a while.

When I finally got up I made myself some cheese and mushrooms on toast and a cup of tea, and tried to motivate myself to go out. But I just didn't feel like it. So instead I got on with some planning.

I planned how long I'll be in my remaining stops, where I'll stay and how I'll get there. I booked a flight back to Auckland and a bus back to Taupo. I looked at my account balance and budgeted for the next 18 weeks until I'm home. (It's not looking bad, could be better, but liveable.) It's sometimes hard to imagine how time-consuming travel planning can be. Searching for the lowest price, finding how to get from/to the airport, getting a map of the terminals, writing in all down in a little book in case you can't get the internet, checking your connections leave you enough time to switch transportation, searching for HelpX placements to save money, writing to HelpX placements, seeing if hostels offer work for accommodation exchanges... blah blah blah. So fuelled with tea, this took up much of my day and I was quite happy to let it do so.

I even had a little look at what I'm going to do in Australia in around 6 weeks time - time sure does fly!

My plan tonight? Dinner, Harry Potter, warmth and sleep. Tomorrow I'm back into a hostel in Wellington CBD so it'll be more exciting then. To be fair, there's nothing stopping me doing exciting things now, I could get the train into Wellington everyday, but my laziness (that very steep hill) combined with the lure of sitting right next to the heater, it just wasn't happening.

I want to come home now, please.

Hi, I'm having a homesick day.

I don't want to go out tomorrow, but when you're travelling there's such a pressure to go and do something spectacular every day. All I really want to do is curl up on the couch with copious amounts of tea and watch rubbish movies. And I want to eat. I want to eat so much that I fall into some kind of food coma. But not just anything, I want to eat Galaxy chocolate, Yorkshire puddings and Mum's steak pitta breads.

I'm bored of having to watch every penny I spend. (Not literally here because NZ doesn't have a 1c...) I'm also fed up of not having a car. It's not so much that I'm lazy, at least not anymore, but I am from Norfolk so I'm not used to these hills. More like mountains really. I should really think of the awesome leg muscles I'm going to have, but when you seem to be walking up a sheer cliff face it's a difficult task to imagine the positives.

Finally, I am so over this rainy weather, come on New Zealand - Texas raised the bar, come join us up here!

16/10/2011 - Taupo - National Park - Wellington (phew!)

The last couple of days have been a whirl of travel! I left Taupo on Friday 14th and I was so sad to go. Gen took me to the bus stop. Turns out I was at the wrong one but my bus driver was the same driver that I had before, Buzz, so he saw me and stopped. Then around 15 minutes into the journey I realised I'd left my phone under my pillow. Excellent. I was feeling pretty low, not wanting to leave Taupo and kind of feeling I was making the wrong decision and leaving my phone made me feel a bit rubbish.

On the way to National Park, we stopped at Waitomo Caves and I went on the cave walk for $33. I must say, it was a little disappointing. Don't get me wrong, the cave itself was magical and scary at the same time, but our guide was less than interesting. Quite often he'd pause for a long time and we wouldn't really know what was going on. But I did see lots of glow worms and stalactites which were really cool, but when you take a picture of glow worms, they no longer glow! I did get a picture of the mucus type stuff that they hang down from themselves to catch their food though, interesting stuff, and they really were beautiful in the dark, like little green stars.

Glow worm mucus

The next stop was a waterfall that the Maori worship. Some of them won't drink water that doesn't come from this waterfall, and they believe it is blessed, so I drank some water from it to 'bless my journey'.

We got up to National Park Village and it was so cold. I soon found out why as we drove up the mountain and there was snow! It turns out there is a ski resort up there on the mountain and we had a bit of fun tobogganing down a little slope. So glad I bought a hat, scarf and a pair of gloves, including a coat. The shorts and tights was a bad wardrobe decision on my part, though, in my defence I didn't know there would be snow. When we got back on the bus, Buzz decided he'd try and get me with a snowball. Little did he know, I'm an expert snowball fighter (ha!), so when he missed and sat back in his drivers seat, that snowball went promptly down the back off his neck. I win. On the way back down the mountain we stopped at the waterfall where, in Lord of the Rings, Gollum jumps into the water. At this point, an American guy called Steven slipped on the rocks and broke his finger, so Buzz had to drive him to the hospital, making him late for dinner.

I got dropped at my hostel which was a good 15 minute walk from where everyone else was staying, but it was the cheaper option. I checked in and then walked down to the bar where everyone was meeting for dinner, except Buzz of course. I had the chicken curry which was nice, but not really worth the $20 I paid for it. Had a nice chat with some people from Holland and a lady from Cheltenham, but on the whole the people on my bus were a little boring. So after I'd eaten I pulled up a stool at the bar and made friends with the two guys behind the bar. This was a good move, because it resulted in me getting absolutely plastered with only a $20 tab at the end of the night. Had some nice little shots, as well as my beloved SoCo and lemonade, but I can't remember much after the Jaeger... I did find two little bottles of Jaeger in my bag in the morning though, and remember not wanting to turn down a drink but also not wanting to drink anymore! I also remember Buzz turning up and having a drink at one point too. Oh, I also got a free toastie. Who said charm didn't get you anywhere huh?

Needless to say I felt like death in the morning, and the 6.30am start didn't do much to help. Buzz just laughed when he picked me up, but obviously anticipating my drunkness, had put a pillow and blanket on my seat for me to nap the morning away, what a sweetie. I napped for lots of the journey, except for when I sat down in the front seat to have a chat with Buzz and give him a hand with the paperwork. Helping him out earned me a free trip from Wellington to Taupo if/when I want it, so I can't complain. A coffee and a Subway later in Palmerston North helped the hangover greatly and I was starting to feel quite a bit better by around 2pm. We got into Wellington around 3pm and had a drive up to the summit of Mt Victoria for some really lovely views of Wellington, but in all honesty I just wanted to sleep. After being dropped at the hostel I walked down to Nomads to see if Jennifer was there with my phone (one of Gen's friends who happened to be coming to Wellington so bought my phone - bonus!), but couldn't find her. Spent a good half hour trying to use the payphone to get in contact but then gave up, bought some PJs since mine ripped, bought some milk for my cereal in the morning and headed back to the YHA.

View from Mt Victoria

I really didn't mean to fall asleep so early last night, but at around 7pm I showered, put on my new PJs, cooked my chicken noodles (with some tomato pasta sauce from the free food section) and then settled down with my book. I was chilly so I got into bed to read, the next thing I know it's 6am and I'm asleep on my book. Slept a little more. Okay a lot more, actually woke up 15 minutes before check-out and had a horrible rush to avoid late check-out fees. But once that was sorted, I stored my pack and headed over to Nomads to pick up my phone from the reception there.

I then took a walk through Wellington to the Parliament buildings. There are free tours of the Parliament buildings every hour and I only wish I could of been allowed to take myself around because there was so much I wanted to see but the tour was quite fast paced. There was a lot of things to read and look at that our guide sort of hurried us past, maybe I'll call them and see if there's a more in depth tour at some point. Sadly, cameras were not allowed on the tour, but the first building we went into was the 'Beehive', which is mostly offices but has a beautiful, round banquet hall to entertain heads of states in. We walked over to the actual building that Parliament sits in then, and it was just beautiful, very Victorian-Gothic. There was a lovely elevator which was one of the old style metal-work ones, really intricate. We first went to look at the Maori Select Committee room, which was beautifully decorated with classic Maori decoration. We then went to the House of Representatives, which is modelled on the House of Commons. Green chairs, green carpet, a public gallery and even the wooden panelling looks the same. The differences were that around the edge of the room, the name's of all the countries New Zealand troops have been involved in are on the wall. The speaker's chair was in the same place, and they even have a mace which is placed in front of the speaker like in the UK. It's interesting actually, that our tour guide told us that all commonwealth countries lower chambers have green carpet and all commonwealth upper chambers have red carpet. She also told us that the green carpet in the HofC represents grass because in the UK, way back when, decisions for the community would be made on the village green, or common, hence the name. We went through to the former upper chamber after that, which was removed from New Zealand politics because it was believed to be inefficient. Red carpet, speaker's chair, all the same. Even the opening of Parliament sounds similar, where somebody knocks on the door of the lower chamber to call the leader of the governing party through to the Governor-General.

We then went into the former Billiard room, where the politicians would smoke and drink and relax. However, it was changed from a billiard room when the first female MP protested that she did not like the banter that occurred in there. It's also worth noting that New Zealand was the first country to allow women to vote. Down in the basement, we saw the support system which makes the Parliament building earthquake-proof, whereby the whole thing pretty much moves. We also took a look in the Parliamentary library, which I probably could have spent hours in, but is apparently only for members of the house, shame really. There are 70 librarians for that library though. When the tour was over I made sure to grab as many fact-sheets as I possibly could, so you'll all be hearing much more as I look into it more.

See why it's called the 'Beehive'?

Parliament

I walked back to the hostel along the waterfront and it was quite nice really, if a little cold. When I got back I read my book whilst I waited for Dan and Gabrielle, my HelpX hosts, to pick me up. When Gabrielle came in, I felt really good about the exchange already. I've only known them for 3 hours right now, but they seem like such good people and they have a lovely little house up in Johnsonville, around 20 minutes from Wellington CBD by train. They mentioned that they wanted to go to the Diwali Festival at the TSB Bank Arena and wondered if I wanted to go - of course I did! The place was packed with people and had so many colours and decorations. The smell of the food was to die for and the clothes were beautiful, as well as the henna being done. I really should have had my hand done. The music and dancing going on was great too. After that we walked down the waterfront and looked at a sand sculpture outside the Te Papa Museum which was amazing. On the walk back to the car, I spotted an Occupy Wellington protest, so I'll be back off there in a couple of days to show my support. Now I'm going to have a cup of green tea and get ready to skype home in a bit!

And here are some pictures that didn't really fit anywhere else.

A giant sculpture of a T-Rex, which of course has been painted black and given a rugby ball for the RWC.

Everyone from the bus.

A London bus, converted into a little hot chocolate cafe!

12,000 miles off course! 

This one too.