The Chronicles of NZ: The Windy City (Written 1/5/07)

I woke up today extremely sore – my body was finally feeling the effects of doing the crossing yesterday. It wasn't so bad that I couldn't move but I could feel my hamstring tingle as I walked and my shoulders were still aching. But a nice hot shower at the Quality Inn put the aches away. After my shower and dressing, I walked down the street from the hotel room to check out some of the major stores. The first place I stopped in was a store called "Pak 'n Save", kind of like a Sam's Club only open to the public. Now I told you how I had gone into a supermarket and just looked in awe. At the Pak 'N Save my mouth just hit the floor – so much food at such low prices was simply to much. I could have stayed in there for hours, but I was on a schedule. So I had to drag myself away from the NZ mecca of grocery shopping and headed for another store called 'The Warehouse' which is like Wal-mart, only with a red color scheme. While in there, I bought my first music CD in over a year – new music (at a reasonable price) is a foreign concept over in Samoa. Some new sounds will definitely help year 2 go by a bit faster. After my little shopping spree I headed back to the hotel to meet up with Josh and Kevin – then we were off to Wellington.

But before we left the city of New Plymouth, we tried to get a photo of Mt. Taranaki but it was hidden by clouds. We even went up to the visitors center, but it was a no go. Funny how we could see the peak from over 200km away when we were doing the crossing yesterday, but we couldn't see anything from 100m away. Ah well, I got pics of it from a distance when we arrived in New Plymouth.

After our trip to the visitor center, we stopped and viewed a nearby waterfall (Dawson's Fall) which was pretty amazing – probably the best waterfall I've seen in NZ so far. We then began the 5 hour drive to Wellington. For the most part, it was a pretty uneventful car ride but the views around us were gorgeous. We arrived in Wellington at about 5:30pm and once again started the process of looking for a place to stay. We tried the local YHA hostel, but it was all booked out. So we went to this zebra striped building called 'Wellywood Backpackers'. It's a pretty nice place but the real winner for it was the fact that this place had free internet 24/7. Obviously a hostel after my own heart plus Josh and I got to use our YHA cards here – so it all worked out in the end.

What's Wellington like? It's windy – people had told me that Wellington was windy, but you have no idea until you've been here. It feels like the Windy City of the southern hemisphere. I think because of it's location between the ocean and the mountains this place gets a crazy amount of wind. It feels smaller then Auckland, yet has more color to it then Auckland. I really feel like I'm in a European country here in Wellington, so it's kind of nice. There's definitely a night life here with the main road (Courtenay St) covered with pubs and clubs. So of course that meant we went out for dinner instead of making it ourselves.

Josh befriended an Australian girl named Lara, and all 4 of us went out for dinner together (she was traveling along and had just arrived in Wellington – at almost the same time as us). So we all just hung out and chatted for a  little bit which was really fun and I had a good time just meeting, yet another traveler. Once they went to another bar, it was time for me to go home – I'm to old to be staying out partying!

We're going to spend a whole day in Wellington, so it will be a good time to really enjoy the city and rest up from our long travels. So we're all doing well in Wellington and really isn't that all we can ask! L8r.

*Side Notes*

-           Wellington has very limited off street parking. How limited? Limited enough to charge $4/hr for a parking space (on the street!). That's just crazy!

-           Wellington is the national capital of NZ. It feels more like a small town than a political city.