Wellington - Day 257-259
Trip Start
Jan 31, 2008
1
185
251
Trip End
Ongoing
Wellington,
North Island,
New Zealand
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Drove from Foxton beach to Wellington this morning, not a lot to see on the way accept for lots of agricultural land and small rural towns. Did stop off at a few surf beaches a long the way but the weather wasn't great once again today, rather wet and dull just like home really.
Dropped my hire car off at the depot in Mount Victoria near Wellington city centre. Another 2406km on the clock in a week after my drive around the north island. Walked to the city centre with my ever increasing amount of luggage. Really need to get rid of some crap to lessen the load a little. Thankfully found somewhere to drop off my bags for the afternoon after wondering around aimlessly for an hour or so. Spend the afternoon walking round the city centre waiting for my friends to finish work.
I'm staying in the beautiful Miramar district just east of the city centre for a few days with some friends. Their house is perched high on a hill overlooking Worser bay and the mountains across the water. The house over looks Peter Jackson's place which is pretty cool. An idyllic spot even on a dull and windy day like today. I now know why Wellington is referred too as "Windy Welly" by the Kiwi's.
Day 258 - 05/11/08
A very lazy day, which was nice for a change. Went for lunch at a beautiful spot on the bay. Had some "Fush & Chups" as the Kiwi's would say.
Wellington is such a beautiful city, everything is on your doorstep. The sea, vast areas of wilderness, a cosmopolitan city with some great restaurants and night-life. Another place added to the list as a potential location to settle, once I have this travel bug out of my system.
I'm so pleased to hear that Obama is the new president of the US. My faith in democracy has finally been restored after the previous two rigged elections. Obama has the opportunity to change the world in a positive way after 8 years of negligence and war warmongering by the Bush administration. Watched the results come in all day on the internet. It was clear that Obama would win very early on as the results for the east-coast states flooded in. Not just great news for the US but for the world!!
We started preparing for our trek this evening, but unfortunately our plan for the Dusky track is a no go, due to landslides and flash floods which have swept parts of the trail away. So plan B is to do the Rees-Dart and Routeburn tracks. Around 100km in total over a period of 8 days and includes 2 river crossings. There have been significant snow falls on the south island over the last few days which is very unseasonable. A further 20cm tonight on top of the 30cm which has already fallen. Our tramp could be a fun one.
It's of course Guy Fawkes night and Kiwi's celebrate the anniversary of the attempted bomb plot in a big way just like the Brits. So we watched Peter Jackson's fireworks display from the balcony of my friends place. Pretty sweet, hey!
Day 259 - 06/11/08
Another relaxing day chilling at my friends place. Did do some jobs in morning though. Hired some crampons from a camp shop in the city and did some food shopping for our 8 day tramp. We have to carry all the food for the entire tramp plus cold weather clothes and camping equipment. Probably at the very least we'll have 25kg each in our backpacks over a distance of 100km. The load will lessen of course as we consume the food but the first few days will be tough going I'm sure.
Tonight we made the final preparations for our departure tomorrow. Bags are packed and we're ready to go tramping!
