Ka mate, Ka mate
Trip Start
Dec 06, 2006
1
81
188
Trip End
Ongoing
Wellington,
New Zealand
Sunday, June 10, 2007
I was due to move rooms in the hostel last Wednesday and didn't fancy it so on Tuesday I thought I'd head to have a look at a big shared house in Newtown, about 2 miles south of the centre. It's what used to be a nurses residence and is still part of the hospital grounds. All seems a bit dodgy to me, especially when I heard that the maniac that runs the place said to a couple of nurses to keep where they were living quiet. Maniac isn't an exaggeration, Reece seems like a complete nutter. He's a big fella and permanently looks like he wants to rip your head off, but he talks like nothing else and is very friendly. When I came to look about I only planned on having a quick look, but we were soon chatting and wandering about all over the place as he was giving me a tour. Due to the problems with flat hunting, places were either too expensive or full of weirdos or dullards or just very scummy, I was pleased to see the house was clean enough and would do the trick so I packed my bags that night and moved in the next day. I'd have preferred to have shared with Kiwis as this place is a bit like a big hostel, there's shared areas and it's full of foreigners, all nice people but hardly the authentic NZ experience. Never mind, it's got everything you would need, broadband internet, telly with full Sky, lots of kitchens dotted about and most importantly after 6 months of hostel living, my own room! What a luxury.
On Friday night there was a party at the house for a couple of people that are leaving, but Reece managed to put a dampener on events when he came up to sort out a room for someone to move in as he told people that they can't drink inside (there's an outside drinking room) and said that anyone who isn't living here has to leave. Party on! He's clearly a bit miserable like that but I suppose it means the house stays nice. We headed in to town and I got a text from some of the folk from the hostel so I headed off to see them. I ended up staying drinking with them and it turned out to be the right place at the right time as there was a group of French people there. One of them was organising a trip to the rugby as France were playing the All Blacks. It turned out that 6 people couldn't make it and he'd given out a couple of the tickets. I thought I'd chance my arm and jokingly said I'd love to go but if only I could get a ticket. He turned around and said I could have one, for FREE! Bonus. I think rugby is a ridiculous sport, in fact it's not really sport, but seeing the All Blacks is just something you're meant to do over here so I was quite chuffed with my free ticket.
I went along with a few people from the house that were going and by chance they were sitting just further along on the same row as the seats we'd been given. On the way in to the stadium there was a Mastercard stand and they were dishing out free programmes and flags for anyone who had a one so by then it was getting like xmas with all my freebies. I reached my seat in amongst the bus load of froggies with my All Blacks flag in hand. I wasn't getting away with it, Peter a Belgian lad from the hostel had the French flag painted on his face and shouted 'there's a rat in the camp' once I'd settled in my seat. As might have been expected as it wasn't a full strength team, the French fans didn't have much to celebrate and because of my seat I couldn't do much flag waving. I did however get sore ears from the continuous (and particularly unimaginative) shouting of ALLEZ LES BLEUS. These people need to learn something new, they did occasionally sing. They sang ALLEZ LES BLEUS. I moved along to the others for the second half and did some cheering as the All Blacks continued to batter them. Again, generally speaking, it was rubbish. There's no real atmosphere and the only time people seemed to get interested was when there was a mexican wave.
Earlier on Saturday I went to get my car sorted as it's warrant of fitness (half baked MOT) was due. I took it along to the test centre and it wasn't long before it was my Subaru's turn, gulp! It failed. Luckily it was only on a couple of minor things, both outer brake lights and a nail in one of my tyres. I replaced the brake lights and popped in to a garage who said they didn't have the time but I should try Tony's tyres in town, which appeared to be the only other place open on a Saturday. Good old Tony, he does free tyre puncture repairs! So after 30 mins I popped back and headed back to the test centre where my fail was turned in to a pass and I've managed to keep my wheels on the road for a tiny fee. Phew.
Back to work tomorrow. Sigh.
