canuckkiwi: Wellington

On the early morning of May 25^th, Christchurch shook some of its residents awake. I had already gotten out of bed – I had a 7:00 a.m. bus to catch and had woken up early – but I didn’t feel a thing. Not sure why. Oh well.

In any case, catch my bus I did and I was off to Blenheim. There were five reasons for me to return there, and all of them were conveniently living under one roof: Hannah, Laura, Ben, Nathan and Kim. Still in town awaiting the start of pruning, they’ve moved out of Koanui and into a house that they’ve furnished quite nicely. Though it had only been a few weeks since I’d seen them (and only a week and a half since I’d seen Hannah), it felt like much more. I was great to be with the gang again.

Two movies, one trip to the library, a somewhat disastrous attempt at making pizza (hint: “tomato sauce” in NZ means “ketchup”), one short night, and a yoga session later, I had to take my leave. It was hard to say goodbye, but I had a good reason to head out – Leah was waiting for me in Wellington!

Yet another ex-Koanuite, Leah is a Canadian Christian-hippy-outdoorswoman, and she’s awesome. She’d left Blenheim a month ago to travel around South-East-Asia, and was back in NZ. She had been staying with her sister in Wellington but was itching to head North to Tauranga and the kiwi orchards. When she suggested I meet up with her in the capital city and travel up together, I jumped at the chance.

Wellington's harbourfront has a strangely placed hopscotch thingy. We played. Leah won. :(

Over the course of three days, we made our way from Wellington to Tauranga via Taihape (a tiny spot on the map), Taupo and Rotorua. It was a fun journey; we saw someone warming up to attempt a world record bike jump (he did it too! Triple back flip http://www.biketaupo.org.nz/content/view/606/1/), splashed around in a hot spring, met a helicopter pilot who’s coworker was flying Peter Jackson around the Tongariro area (lucky!) and even saw some trout trying to spawn up a waterfall (cool!)

One tiny section of Okere Falls. That's where we saw the fish spawning.

Leah in the mists of a steaming Rotorua pool in the park.

One of the foot baths in the park.

Some dude doing a crazy flip.

Leah in Taupo's hot spring

But the best part of the journey was the destination: the new home of six other friends from Blenheim. Aline, Andrea, Sinead, Joe/Adrienne, Hiroshi and Rob have set themselves up in a nice apartment (though condo is a more apt description) in gorgeous, beachy Mount Manganui (which is basically a suburb of Tauranga). It’s très sweet here.

The others (including Leah now) are all working on the kiwi orchards, picking now, pruning later. I’ve been enjoying their company while their around, and enjoying my solitude while they aren’t.

Over the past two days I’ve walked at least 25km while exploring the town and searching out the best deal for a ski jacket ($159, as it turns out). I’ve also hiked up Mount Manganui again, and even gone for a (very short) dip in the ocean – which is great, considering June 1^st marks the first official day of winter here. Crazy! And how did I celebrate? By sunbathing on the beach J

Leah on the beach.

The beach from the top of Mount Manganui.

Perched precariously on a rock on top of Mount Manganui.

When I last checked in with you folks, we were nestled in the foothills of the mountains in Tongoriro National Park. I’m very glad we had arrived during daylight hours and had a nice – if distant – look at the mountains, for the view that had so enchanted us on Tuesday was completely obliterated by Wednesday morning. The mountains were fully shrouded by the thick clouds and fog that had moved in overnight. Fie!

The forecast had promised the clouds would burn off, so we valiantly headed deeper into the park to Whakapapa village wearing clothing we had deemed appropriate for the excursion – nylon pants, t-shirts, cardigans and rain jackets.

At the i-site (the visitor’s centre) we enquired about short walks in the area, specifically about the Meads walk – a half-hour walk to a rock wall that was used in some scene in LOTR (still not sure which one). The woman at the counter directed us to head on up to the ski fields, and to take a path behind one of the lifts.

Let’s remember that it’s early spring here and that we were up in the mountains. Hence, there was still snow up there, and the ski season was still in full swing (it’s a school holiday this week). Remember those nylon pants, t-shirts, cardigans and rain jackets we were sporting? Well, we quickly discovered that they were definitely not warm enough.

We pulled out all the extra layers and cold-weather accessories we could and girded ourselves for a nice challenging walk through the mist.

Toasty!

We couldn’t see more than 10 feet in front of us for a while, but only for a short while, cause about five minutes after setting out up that slippery, snowy hill, we were in a clearing, and it appeared that we were at the end of the walk (30 minutes my sweet patootie). The fog suddenly lifted and we were standing in front of a 10-15m high rock wall that we assume was the star of the show. We took a few quick photos, then headed back to try and warm up.

Quick! Someone tell me what scene this is in! We haven't figured it out yet.

We drove (and by “we” I mean Nick) to Wellington all afternoon. Along the way we skirted some truly alarming rock faces that were either seemingly on the brink of tumbling into the road, or had done so already. We didn't get a picture of it, but one section actually had a car-sized boulder that had rolled across two lanes of road to the other side.

Eeek! And this was luckily a place where there was a shoulder to the road. Usually it was just sheer rock face jutting out right next to the pavement.

, and arrived just in time for rush hour. We swung by two backpacker hostels which had come highly recommended by our travel books and quickly rejected them (the first smelled of a delicate bouquet of old hockey equipment, cat pee and cigarettes; the second’s front porch was writhing with at least 20 disaffected youth. They reminded me of a bunch of cats just lazing about in the sun looking entitled and bored with life).

We ended up at the YHA which was so much nicer than any place I’ve ever stayed in Wellington. When next I’m back in Wellington I’m not bothering looking anywhere else (and if ever you’re there, do the same. Trust me.)

We really didn’t see much of Wellington. A short walk along Cuba street and the main drag was about it. I did point out a café where the LOTR actors had apparently frequented on occasion, and noticed that the piercing studio that had given me the now-defunct hole in my lip six years ago was equally defunct itself.

It was an early night, as we were expected at the ferry terminal at 7:30 to make our way to the South Island.

Well…it was meant to be an early night, and Christina and Nick, comfortably ensconced in their cosy double room, did get a full night’s rest. I, on the other hand, was in a six-person dorm and got lured into a long conversation with a kiwi bloke from somewhere on the North Island who was very sweetly accompanying his niece and her friend to a Paramour concert in town the next night. They were all very nice.

Who wasn’t nice were the other two twits from our room who loudly stumbled in at 4:00 a.m. More precisely, they loudly and repeatedly attempted unsuccessfully to open the door at 4:00 a.m. When I got up to open the door for them, they proceeded to turn on the lights and slowly and noisily get ready for bed to the backdrop of my passive aggressive sighs.

I so wanted to return the favour when my alarm went off two and half hours later, but I couldn’t do that to the uncle and girls. So instead, I did what all nice roommates should, and got ready in the dark trying to make as little noise as possible. I did get one final passive aggressive act in and used the twits’ nice face wash and moisturiser they had left in the washroom – that’ll teach them! (Not that they’ll notice, but whatever).

On a positive note, that morning was clear and bright, and for once, Wellington wasn’t being hit with gale force winds, so the sea was calm. In short, it was a perfect day to take the ferry.

Just look at that brilliant sunshine.

The crossing from Wellington, on the North Island, to Picton, on the South Island takes three hours on the HUGE ferry boat. It’s a great ride that starts off with great views of Wellington – a picturesque city built into a steep hillside, which means that nearly everyone seems to have a view of the ocean.

Wellington in the a.m.

The middle section is open sea, which is still quite pretty, and then the last hour or so is through Marlborough Sound, which is particularly stunning. I was hoping to see dolphins as I had during the crossing last time since Nick has never really seen any (don’t worry, that’s a situation that has been taken care of since then – stay tuned!). Alas, there were none.

The Marlborough Sounds -- ahhhhhhhhhhh.

We did see thousands upon thousands of jellyfish though. So that was cool.

A quick tour of Picton – including the cute park on the water, complete with its own ride-able miniature train and affable conductor – and we were off to Kaikoura, stopping many times along the way to get photos.