Wellington
Hi, for a change it's Claire here :) This week I've been off down to Wellington with my friend Olivia so in order to save telling the story over and over, I'm posting this here.
My tendency to ramble or include more detail than you probably want is why my dad does the updates every Sunday.
Monday 15th
We got up very early (well early for us anyway) at 6 a.m. to be at the train station for 7. We checked in, were given our seat numbers and said bye to my dad. The train trip is long, 12 hours! but there is some beautiful scenery, we stopped at National Park (near Mt. Ruapehu) for a lunch break about half way through the trip. Olivia and I played a round of Quiddler, a word card game, she read and watched the scenery. I watched the scenery and slept. We arrived in Wellington a little late, a bit after 7.30 p.m. Our hotel was less than 5 minutes walk from the train station and we found it pretty easily. The hotel was a Holiday Inn and was very nice :)
We checked in then went for a wander round in search of food, ending up at the Burger King on Lambton Quay, only a few minutes walk from our hotel. Lambton Quay was deserted, almost no cars and no people, the buses driving past were mostly empty it was quite disconcerting. The Burger King was pretty big and very quiet, they close at 9, we were there around 8.30. We ate and then went back to the hotel to unpack a bit, watched a bit of The Big Bang Theory on my computer and then slept.
Tuesday 16th
The beds in the hotel were really comfy, probably the best bed I've ever slept in. We had trouble getting up both Tuesday and Wednesday mornings because we just wanted to lie there. After making ourselves wake up and watch a couple more eps of TBBT we went off to Te Papa, the big museum in Wellington. We wandered around I'd say about two thirds of Te Papa and had an early lunch there. We skipped the bits that were very similar to Auckland Museum like the Maori maere and storage house, and the more touristy aimed immigration bits (4th floor) the things we already knew. There was a cool room which had a floor with light up tiles which were covered with satellite images of NZ (see photos).
On our way back from Te Papa to Lambton Quay, for some shoe shopping, we stopped and played at a kids playground we'd walked past earlier in the day then carried on to Lambton Quay. It was much busier by day. We visited the big Whitcoulls store (LAQ) and compared it to our own store plus Olivia found some shoes to buy. Then we gave up, to tired to carry on wandering around. We went back to the hotel, watched the pairs figure skating (Winter Olympics) some more TBBT, had yummy room service (me a pizza, Olivia a burger and chips) then watched Bondi Rescue, Cold Case and Private Practice.
Wednesday 17th
We went on the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens and had a wander round, trying to not to get rained on, and a play on a playground up there. Then back down to Lambton Quay, wandering in the opposite direction to the day before and finding loads more shops. We both bought the S1-S4 box sets of How I Met Your Mother in JB Hi-Fi on Willis Street, then headed for Cuba Street. We found, accidentally this time, the Whitcoulls store on Cuba Street (CUB) so of course had another look around. Then more walking to Courtney Place, the Whitcoulls store there and lunch. We were jealous of the Courtney Place store because they were playing the Glee Soundtrack (vol. 2) something our boss won't allow any more, so I texted him telling him and joking that we now had some suggestions/demands only he didn't understand that I was joking. Our suggestions are: being allowed to play Glee (vol. 2); better organisation/layouts of front display tables; and something else which I can't remember right now.
After Cuba Street we were tired so headed back to the hotel, keeping a look out for a potential dinner place. We watched the HIMYM special features, and a bit of the winter olympics before heading out to dinner then back for Packed to the Rafters and Special Victims Unit (okay yes we did watch quite a lot of TV, but we were really tired!).
Thursday 18th
Another 6 am start, slight confusion at the train station because we arrived before they were letting people check in so we just hung around feeling worried that the train wouldn't arrive on time (it did). We put our bags on the train and then found out where to check in, we got the same good seats as last time with lots of leg room (the train equivalent of aeroplane bulkhead seats). I slept for most of the train journey home, waking for odd hours or so then sleeping again, Olivia read and watched TV eps on my computer. We stopped at Ohakune this time instead of National Park for the lunch break, I slept more and then we chatted away the last hour and a half or so from Pukekohe to Britomoart.
Then that's it home!
My tendency to ramble or include more detail than you probably want is why my dad does the updates every Sunday.
Monday 15th
We got up very early (well early for us anyway) at 6 a.m. to be at the train station for 7. We checked in, were given our seat numbers and said bye to my dad. The train trip is long, 12 hours! but there is some beautiful scenery, we stopped at National Park (near Mt. Ruapehu) for a lunch break about half way through the trip. Olivia and I played a round of Quiddler, a word card game, she read and watched the scenery. I watched the scenery and slept. We arrived in Wellington a little late, a bit after 7.30 p.m. Our hotel was less than 5 minutes walk from the train station and we found it pretty easily. The hotel was a Holiday Inn and was very nice :)
We checked in then went for a wander round in search of food, ending up at the Burger King on Lambton Quay, only a few minutes walk from our hotel. Lambton Quay was deserted, almost no cars and no people, the buses driving past were mostly empty it was quite disconcerting. The Burger King was pretty big and very quiet, they close at 9, we were there around 8.30. We ate and then went back to the hotel to unpack a bit, watched a bit of The Big Bang Theory on my computer and then slept.
Tuesday 16th
The beds in the hotel were really comfy, probably the best bed I've ever slept in. We had trouble getting up both Tuesday and Wednesday mornings because we just wanted to lie there. After making ourselves wake up and watch a couple more eps of TBBT we went off to Te Papa, the big museum in Wellington. We wandered around I'd say about two thirds of Te Papa and had an early lunch there. We skipped the bits that were very similar to Auckland Museum like the Maori maere and storage house, and the more touristy aimed immigration bits (4th floor) the things we already knew. There was a cool room which had a floor with light up tiles which were covered with satellite images of NZ (see photos).
On our way back from Te Papa to Lambton Quay, for some shoe shopping, we stopped and played at a kids playground we'd walked past earlier in the day then carried on to Lambton Quay. It was much busier by day. We visited the big Whitcoulls store (LAQ) and compared it to our own store plus Olivia found some shoes to buy. Then we gave up, to tired to carry on wandering around. We went back to the hotel, watched the pairs figure skating (Winter Olympics) some more TBBT, had yummy room service (me a pizza, Olivia a burger and chips) then watched Bondi Rescue, Cold Case and Private Practice.
Wednesday 17th
We went on the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens and had a wander round, trying to not to get rained on, and a play on a playground up there. Then back down to Lambton Quay, wandering in the opposite direction to the day before and finding loads more shops. We both bought the S1-S4 box sets of How I Met Your Mother in JB Hi-Fi on Willis Street, then headed for Cuba Street. We found, accidentally this time, the Whitcoulls store on Cuba Street (CUB) so of course had another look around. Then more walking to Courtney Place, the Whitcoulls store there and lunch. We were jealous of the Courtney Place store because they were playing the Glee Soundtrack (vol. 2) something our boss won't allow any more, so I texted him telling him and joking that we now had some suggestions/demands only he didn't understand that I was joking. Our suggestions are: being allowed to play Glee (vol. 2); better organisation/layouts of front display tables; and something else which I can't remember right now.
After Cuba Street we were tired so headed back to the hotel, keeping a look out for a potential dinner place. We watched the HIMYM special features, and a bit of the winter olympics before heading out to dinner then back for Packed to the Rafters and Special Victims Unit (okay yes we did watch quite a lot of TV, but we were really tired!).
Thursday 18th
Another 6 am start, slight confusion at the train station because we arrived before they were letting people check in so we just hung around feeling worried that the train wouldn't arrive on time (it did). We put our bags on the train and then found out where to check in, we got the same good seats as last time with lots of leg room (the train equivalent of aeroplane bulkhead seats). I slept for most of the train journey home, waking for odd hours or so then sleeping again, Olivia read and watched TV eps on my computer. We stopped at Ohakune this time instead of National Park for the lunch break, I slept more and then we chatted away the last hour and a half or so from Pukekohe to Britomoart.
Then that's it home!
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