It was another lazy start today, the way it tends to be when I’m staying at someone’s place. I was up at a decent time to get a car parking coupon, but spent quite a while looking up a few things online and trying to get some bearings on where things were in relation to each other. I never seemed to find time to have a look at the guidebooks properly though! I also transferred ownership of my turbo nutter Subaru Legacy and extended the registration.
Eventually I walked into town and was about to go the museum here which is meant to be great, but Jono finished up, and we went on a road trip around the back of Wellington bay, catching a few small beaches and a fantastic sandwich at the Chocolate fish Cafe in Scorching Bay. I guess this will sum up my time in New Zealand – I later found out that this cafe was where the deal was signed to film Lord of the Rings in New Zealand (see the link above). Having never seen any of the Lord of The Rings films, or read the books I have no fascination with the sights used, unless they are good for their own sake which I think is a good thing.
We ended up at Surfer’s Beach which I thought was hilarious. Five minutes earlier we had perched on a rock and waved hello to the planes approaching the airport, then we were watching the surfers in the water, less than 150m from the Royal New Zealand plane that had just landed. We then went to the outdoors shop and I ended up buying several things in the Kathmandu 50% sale – all of which I have back home…..sleeping mats, walking poles that are heavy and suck, and a new waterproof bag. I wanted to buy a sleeping bag but resisted as I have two at home, and it would be cheaper to send one over (sorry mum, that text WAS serious!). Guess that’s the problem with travelling to many destinations – you just can’t hang onto everything, and it’s very frustrating not having hands on everything you would back home. I have a great tent I’d love here, sleeping mat, poles, ice axes, climbing rack, and cooking stove. Arg! I need to have a bag and stove if I hike to some of the huts I hope to which is a bit of a nightmare.
I got a treat of visiting the supermarket and getting laughed at by Kirsty when I mentioned how many of the fruits I had never seen, never mind taste before! A quiet night in followed reminiscing about Whistler, me showing off Scotland in pictures (laughing back at Kirsty when I showed her Oldshoremore beach : ‘Is that in Australia?’…. ‘No, it’s the far north west of Scotland’), and seeing some pics of Jono and Kirsty’s recent boarding trip to Japan.
I did get round to booking a ferry for tomorrow afternoon so am off to the South Island with no set itinery, just hoping my mate comes off the Abel Tasman walk and calls me, otherwise I’ll be heading to Kaikoura to swim with the dolphins and head towards Christchurch to see a mate, despite the temptation to have a walk around the Marlborough Sound.
I keep leaving stuff for the way back up north so I hope I get the motivation to do stuff on my own down South!
Our quiet BBQ night in. Kirsty, Jono and the wandering scotsman.
Check the runway in the background, surfers in the foreground!