Wandering Scotsman

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!

I had a pretty sharp start as it was a long day’s road trip from Hamilton to Wellington, stopping briefly at Ta Awamutu to pick up some winter climbing gear from a mate’s parents. It’s just that after all that, I forgot to ask about snow stakes, guidebooks and walking poles, so I went away with some ice gear which in hindsight another mate could have taken over for me. Och well as they say!
From there I had another 7 hours in the car, passing classic places like the Tongariro National Park and the winter ski towns around it. I never way anything due to the clouds really, however I plan to stop there on the way back.
It’s now one of my worries at this time of year that any walking or sights I hope to see will be covered in cloud. I’ll be gutted if this is the case!
I stopped off for the odd snack, but pretty much kept on the road all day from 8.30am until 6pm. The only good thing was listening to loads of new tunes I’ve acquired like Emilio Torrini, The Beautiful Girls (I saw them 2 years ago in Adelaide), The Living End, The Knife and others, finishing up with the Cult’s Greatest Hits coming into Wellington! Unfortunately I was a bit wary I got clocked for being ever so slightly over the speed limit so fingers crossed!! (However I never changed ownership until two days later!?)
Jono and I just like we were in Whistler!

It was great hooking up with Jono – I hadn’t seen him since Whistler in 1999! Off we went for some fantastic food in a great Asian food restaurant called Chow in Wellington. Wellington looks a bit funkier than Auckland – I just hope I get more time to explore the shops and nightlife on the way back North!