... So now I'm in Wellington, New Zealand's capital city... I'm staying out in the suburb/town of Lower Hatt on a mattress in the living room of Matt Carver, a guy I met on the infamous (in my head) trip to Halong Bay... he was one of the many people I met on that tour, many of whom I met again and again on my way down Vietnam but he had just worked his way up in the opposite direction... anyway, so I'm in the capital (I didn't realise it was the capital at first... thought that was Auckland... silly me) ... Last night I found out that 'Kiora' is Maori for 'hello' and 'yes' and a general do all word like that... I told Matt and his gf Ashley that Kiora is English for second-rate cordial drink... such a coincendence... ;)
... To get to Wellington I took the ferry from the one-horse town of Picton up to the north island (as I waited in the ferry terminal in Wellington for Matt I looked through the leaflets for tourists... there was even one for Picton... I didn't get time to read it but I imagine it said, 'There is f**k-all to do in picton') ... the ferry ride was pretty nice as I'd been briefed by SJ... but I was struck by the feeling of similarity to England as I approached the cliffs of the North Island... much like the white cliffs that Vera Lynn sung about (didn't see any blue birds though... and also they weren't white, they were green... but still similar!) ... indeed, with the lakes and the greenery and the gorges and the mountains I have been overall struck by the similarity to England (stay with me here people, I'm going to justify it more...) ... NZ strikes me as England but on a much grander scale... all the beauty of the English countryside but bigger and better (Hollywood style... hence why Lord of the Rings wasn't filmed in the Lake District... a bit too quaint)... as I looked at the North Island from the ferry I was struck with an image... an image of God (Insert which every Deity you believe in here) was stood looking at England with a cigar protruding from the corner of his mouth... he's forming a frame with his fingers while looking at England and saying, "I want this but bigger and better boys..." ... ... ... anyway...
Wellington is a pretty nice city and Matt and his flat mates (Ashley, his girlfriend, and Caleb) are nice people... I've wondered around the city and spent some time chilling out at his house (even started playing Guitar Hero on the PS3 with the proper guitar controller thing... well addictive!) ... I've done some of the touristy things in the City... I've ridden the cable car up to the Botanical gardens... I found it funny in the cable car when I sat there looking at the driver of the car in his cabin, with his iPod in his ears and his feet on the dash as he pressed the odd button and looked thoroughly bored... I looked among the things he had on the dashboard of the cabin, as well as his feet, was a book titled, 'Principals of helicopter flight'... clearly this cable car driver has ambitions... I don't think a helicopter is as chushdy a gig as this cable car...
... I've even taking in a dash of culture at the national museum, 'Tu Papa' (which is coincidentally free to enter)... one exhibit caught my eye... it was in an among a display about an endangered animal called the Kakapo... the exhibit was a rugby style helmet which looked like it was made out of molten, fused condoms... reading the little caption card it explained,
... To get to Wellington I took the ferry from the one-horse town of Picton up to the north island (as I waited in the ferry terminal in Wellington for Matt I looked through the leaflets for tourists... there was even one for Picton... I didn't get time to read it but I imagine it said, 'There is f**k-all to do in picton') ... the ferry ride was pretty nice as I'd been briefed by SJ... but I was struck by the feeling of similarity to England as I approached the cliffs of the North Island... much like the white cliffs that Vera Lynn sung about (didn't see any blue birds though... and also they weren't white, they were green... but still similar!) ... indeed, with the lakes and the greenery and the gorges and the mountains I have been overall struck by the similarity to England (stay with me here people, I'm going to justify it more...) ... NZ strikes me as England but on a much grander scale... all the beauty of the English countryside but bigger and better (Hollywood style... hence why Lord of the Rings wasn't filmed in the Lake District... a bit too quaint)... as I looked at the North Island from the ferry I was struck with an image... an image of God (Insert which every Deity you believe in here) was stood looking at England with a cigar protruding from the corner of his mouth... he's forming a frame with his fingers while looking at England and saying, "I want this but bigger and better boys..." ... ... ... anyway...
Wellington is a pretty nice city and Matt and his flat mates (Ashley, his girlfriend, and Caleb) are nice people... I've wondered around the city and spent some time chilling out at his house (even started playing Guitar Hero on the PS3 with the proper guitar controller thing... well addictive!) ... I've done some of the touristy things in the City... I've ridden the cable car up to the Botanical gardens... I found it funny in the cable car when I sat there looking at the driver of the car in his cabin, with his iPod in his ears and his feet on the dash as he pressed the odd button and looked thoroughly bored... I looked among the things he had on the dashboard of the cabin, as well as his feet, was a book titled, 'Principals of helicopter flight'... clearly this cable car driver has ambitions... I don't think a helicopter is as chushdy a gig as this cable car...
... I've even taking in a dash of culture at the national museum, 'Tu Papa' (which is coincidentally free to enter)... one exhibit caught my eye... it was in an among a display about an endangered animal called the Kakapo... the exhibit was a rugby style helmet which looked like it was made out of molten, fused condoms... reading the little caption card it explained,
"... [the kakapo] male habitually tried to mate with people's heads. So this helmet was made to collect his sperm..."
A particularly unflattering picture of the helmet in use. Maybe its my English reserve kicking in but I don't care how endangered a species is... it's not allowed to mate with my head... just a bit of a rule of thumb I run my life by...
... Financially things are going fine here in NZ... it's not as expensive as Australia so I'm getting by OK... I wanted to get an All Blacks rugby shirt but they are ridiculously expensive (like 100 quid a pop), but generally it's not too bad here... one thing I have noticed is that they round up your change for you here... so if something is $4.99 and you give $5, then you get no change... turns out they abolished 1, 2 and 5 cent pieces in the recent past... so 4.99 is an even more pointless price here then it is at home... It's a bit cheeky of them to assume that I don't want/need that penny... In England we have the saying, 'Count the pennies and the pounds will follow.' ... I'm not that tight with money (honestly) but at home I have a penny jar and it all adds up... here the saying should be, 'Count the pennies, and you'll see how much the presumptuous beggars have squeezed out of you.' ... ... and relax...
... and there we go... the things I wanted to say are out there in the ether... you know where I am and what I am up to... tonight me and Matt are going Tramping (NZ slang for hiking... other interesting NZ slang: Scarfies (students), Toggs (Swimming shorts), Jandels (Flip-flops))... he's a bit of a pro by all accounts, so will have a Tramp (NZ version of the word) up to a cabin they have up in the hills where we can stay for the night and then Tramp (see previous) back on Saturday... then he's having a Keg party at his flat, which should be good... Then on Monday I'm getting the bus up to Rotarua to see some Geezers (Geothermal water springs... not cockney likely-lads) and that before I pop up to Auckland to get my flight to Santiago... blimey, busy days:)
... I hope you're all well... keep lovely my people:)
No comments:
Post a Comment