Well....here's hoping today can be classed as the worst day of the holiday. Not that anything truly bad happened in the grand scheme of things, it's just not been a great day. For starters, the storms battering the entire length of New Zealand kept my van shaking and me awake until easily 4am. [post edit....having found out what happened on the Pelorus Bridge campsite I'd been on the previous night, I am now quite happy that I was only kept awake by high winds!!]
The plan for the day was to head in to Wellington from my out-of-town campsite, take in a few museums and then head up to the Tongariro National Park ready for the Alpine Crossing walk the next day. A quick check on googlemaps on the ferry had informed me that it would take about 2 hours to drive to my next campsite, so a full day in Wellington seemed reasonable.
I'd also read in a guidebook that "parking spaces are as easy to find in Wellington as bad coffee". Now although that comment can be taken either way, I decided it was probably an indication that parking would be hard to find and that I should consider the 45 minute train journey instead. So in the midst of pouring rain and driving winds, I set off to the train station.
Error. No trains into or out of Wellington. Lines are being dug up for maintenance work. But it's ok - there's a replacement bus service running to the same timetable. Just wait out front. Where is the timetable? In the ticket office which is closed until the New Year.
50 soggy minutes later...I was on a bus into town. I had re-considered driving but since the trains were out, I thought the parking situation would be even worse than normal. I'd also considered abandoning the whole trip, but what else do you do on a seriously rainy day? By the time the bus got into town, the rain had actually let up a little, which was a relief. However, it was already midday so I decided to limit my activities to two museums: Te Papa is *the* museum for Maori history and culture, and at the other end of the scale the Weta Cave experience I had been advised was a must do for anyone into sci-fi films. Weta are the company who made the props and did the digital imigiary for such films as the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Avatar.
The Te Papa experience was very interesting. I would have liked to spend more time there. However, the wet weather had driven pretty much everyone indoors and the place was filled with kids who were screaming because they were running around playing games, screaming because their parents had told them off for running around playing games, or just screaming because everyone else was screaming. I lasted 90 minutes and couldn't take any more so hopped on the bus to the Weta Cave.
A piece of advice for anyone travelling to Wellington. Skip the Weta Cave. It's really not worth it! After a 30 minute bus journey out, the Weta Cave turned out to be a tiny shop selling memorabilia from the films, and a cinema where you saw a 15 minute promotional DVD talking about all the things they do at Weta (for info, they make props and do the makeup for things like orcs, and they do the digital work). Then guess what - another wait for a bus, bus ride into town and get to the station for the replacement bus service as the trains aren't running.
6pm back at the car, I switch on TomTom and program in my next destination. Shock horror - 4.5 hours driving, says TomTom. That's a 10:30 arrival!! That's not good, but given I was being collected at 8:30 the next morning, there was not a lot of choice, so off I drove.
The drive itself was uneventful. Except for the one time my concentration slipped and I got pulled over by a cop who explained that I was driving too quickly and would need to pay a fine. My mind had automatically slipped into UK driving speeds which are somewhat faster than New Zealand ones. And up until now, I have actually managed to stick to all the New Zealand limits. But in perspective, it could have been a lot worse and it is a justified fine - I was driving over the speed limit!
Finally reached the campsite around 10:30 (the last 6km of road were marked as "drive carefully - Kiwis crossing"). You can be sure I drove *very* carefully - all I needed to finish off the day was to accidentally hit and kill an already nearly extinct species of native bird!
Aaahhhh, I feel better for that rant. Only problem is that I can't post the blog, as the WiFi on the campsite appears to be broken....
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