Travel Story «Giving it loads of Welly»

New Zealand | 0 Comments 15 December 2006 - Last Update 29 January 2007

Wellington, the capital (accepted by everyone - not like how everyone is aware that Cork is the real capital of Ireland but we don´t want the influx of tourist´s and politicans and so we "call" Dublin the Capital) is the southern-most city (like Cork) on the North Island, thus the place where interisland ferries leave from and most importantly as far as the locals are concerned, Wellington is the homeplace of God´s gift to film-making and tourism in New Zealand, his worship and most illustrous deity - PETER JACKSON.

Having made ourselves well and truly at home at Sammy and David´s in Napier (to the point where we had our own guests) we made our way down the coast to Wellington - or Welly as some people are permitted to call it.

Once we arrived we made ourselves at home at the YHA hostel (while Emily and Lorna parked Dory - and took turns the rest of our time in Welly paying for her parking). 

As usually happens when we first arrive in a big city (having spent every waking - and since we share bedrooms- sleeping moment together) we usually persue solitary activities. This generally means going to different internet cafes where the girls (Lorna, Aisling and Emily) upload photos as if they are spys relaying essential photographic evidence back to headquarters and update the blog as though our collective lives depended on it.

 I usually spent my time on the internet looking at trailers for the latest movie releases on http://movies.yahoo.com/ or general crap on wikipedia or youtube. Since we are the only ones who read the blog I only update it when the girls complain in formation (much like your english teacher used to go on about the overdue essay but times it by three). Now I promise to change my approach if complaints from the general public are made (thereby disproving my assertion that only the writers read the blog) to grainne.crowley@hotmail.com please title the e-mail "I am your loyal and appreciative audience".

As seems to be the normal course of events with us, the first day was a right off. What with aclimatizing to the heat (oh wait no that´s a fantasy, the weather was getting progressively colder and wetter as the summer progressed) and lugging our swelling backpacks to our new home, we were wrecked and determined that a home cooked meal (not by me - foodpoisioning not being part of the plan until the beginning of the South America Beach Diet) and an early night (a late morning wake-up for some aswell) would be the best course of action.

Emily is the queen of planning and goal achievement and boy did she set herself some doozies a) Meet/Marry an All Black Current Squad Member (Dan Carter or Richie McCaw were most preferable) b) Meet an Orc and thus shorten the degrees of separation between her and Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn in Lord of the Rings for those of you who have been recently in a coma). By the time we had reached Wellington, neither of these (quite achieveable - according to the Kiwi Diaspora and The Lonely Planet) targets had been attacked, I mean met. Therefore Emily added a new target (though calling this person a target would have got us deported) Helen Clarke - The Prime Minister/Ministeress of New Zealand.  

While Emily was widening her sphere of contacts to include political leaders, I slept. When I finally dragged myself from the top bunk (I HATE TOP BUNKS) Aisling decided that she was going to the Te Papa Museum, and since I was too lazy to read up about anything I tagged along too.

The Te Papa Museum (ten minutes walk from the hostel) was a veritable goldmine. Every level was filled with a wealth of information regarding the natural and cultural history fo both New Zealand and the pacific island region. It was amazing and every time you turned a corner there seemed to be three different directions you could take each with more exciting a promising information. Basically if you weren´t intending to spend two of three days in there (it´s free by the way) you would definitely miss something.

As the world is a aware I have issues with commitment and making decisions and I founf the whole experience very disconcerting. I mean every choice you make could mean that you are sacrificing a better opportunity. I had to eat to steady my nerves and even picked the wrong bloody restaurant (the best selection of food being on the ground floor). It became all to much for me and I left with the Ace in tow having spent 3 hours in the museum and have seen about 50 square feet of the place.

As with every other bloody conurbation in New Zealand (with the exception of the Ghost-town Christchurch) Wellington was built on a series of hills. These hills actually surroud the city and are part of the reason that the population tends to to remain static as there´s nowhere else to put anyone without encroaching on the natural park (and Kiwi´s seem to like there nature more that than they do Rugby) also what with the hills killing people it keeps the population at the same level, it´s a testament to my natural fitness that I am still alive today.

Aisling suggested that we get a train type thing to the top of some hill that has an amazing view of the city. I was happy to accompany her as the train type thing would be doing all the work anyway. Well the view was truly amazing, beautiful, awe inspiring but it highlighted a problem we have been experiencing throughout New Zealand - The "Oh My God That´s Amazing" Overload. 

Every single time you round a corner there´s a distinct possibility that the view that awaits you is one of the most beautiful in the entire world (besides the last view from 10 minutes ago). The problem being that you become accoustomed to the awe, (I imagine it´s the same effect supermodels have on Leonardo DiCaprio), you know it`s a privilege to see the sights but at the same time you`ve already felt this same feeling of amazement 25 times before lunch. I do recognise that this is a really marvellous complaint to have and I´m not trying to ellict sympathy but I am trying to expalin why after we took the requiste photos we had no interest in hanging around on the hill overlooking beautiful Wellington oohing and awing with the tourists.

I wanted to get the train type thing back down the hill but Aisling suggested that we walk back down "Walking down is easy" - WRONG. Some sort of arctic wind from hell made our descent perilous and by the time we made it to the bottom we were wrecked from trying to stay upright and petrified that we come down the wrong route and would have to walk uphill in order to get back to  the hostel. Thankfully however such drastic measures were not required to be taken and in a moment of joy we rendezvoused with Emily in a local hostelry to celebrate and wait til Lorna texted us that the dinner (Broccoli and Chicken) she was preparing was ready. 

That evening Emily and I accompanied Lorna to the local Cinema to see the new Bond movie Casino Royale (The Ace, myself and Emily had already seen it in Napier and whllw we liked it so much to see it a second time, the Ace declined our invitation). Just a word to the wise, if you suffer from a heart conditon or a weak desposition DO NOT go to see this movie, because Daniel Craig has a licence to kill (by heartbreak - why oh why can´t he be mine??) and is not afraid to use it. The movie was great, the venue was beautiful. This one screen cinema in Wellington was specially refurbished to the tune of NZ$3 Million in 2003 so that it would be of high enough standard to house the world premier for the final movie in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy - The Return of the King. Indeed it is a venue worthy of royalty. The seats have name plates showing who sat in them at the great event. Lorna sat in Ian "Gandalf" McKellen´s seat. We also learned that at Christmas they were showing all the Lord of the Rings movies there again. Unfortunately for us we had decided to base ourselves in Christchurch during the holiday season.

The next moring inspired by the aura at the cinema Emily and I decided to go on a Lord of the Rings Tour. But another story is dedicated to this.

After we arrived back Emily decided to celebrate the welsh side of her background and we went to the only Welsh Pub in the southern hemisphere (which actually highlights distinct differences between the Irish and the Welsh - we bring our alcoholics on tour, they, it would seem, do not). After inquiring with the friendly bartender (think he was English not Welsh though) about where the hub of social activity in Wellington he directed us to an Irish Pub (there are at three in every city, two in every town and one per village EVERYWHERE). After we had eaten I returned home (all tuckered out after the Lord of the Rings tour) but the girls stayed out and spent the night people watching (passing comment on the possiblity of people being "ladies of the night" and on the sexuality of a group of dancers).

The next morning was our final in Wellington (well together at least) and Emily and I took the girls to the Chocolate Fish Cafe. We had been there the day before as it was regularly frequented by cast members of the LOTR Trilogy and is really near Peter Jackson´s home.

Then we got a ferry from the north island to the south island.

Lorna and I returned to Wellington later in the trip but spent most of our time on the internet (I watched the Extras episode with Orlando Bloom on YouTube - Hilarious). I did pretend to be Arty and went to the National Art Museum. It was actually really nice, the exhibitions were different and thought provoking (one thought it provoked was "I really need to change the batteries on my disc-man").

In conclusion after Dunedin, Wellington was my favourite city in New Zealand and we had a really nice time there (possibly because we didn´t purposely endanger our lives for a change).