This morning, we packed up to leave the Park Hotel Ruapehu. JQ says she will miss her little bed under the stairs. Guess she really liked it! I also liked leaning over the balcony and yelling, "Make me some breakfast, Cinderella!" Unfortunately, the lack of any kind of cooking devices meant that she was pretty much useless at that task. Go figure.
When I dropped the key off to check out, I did say we liked the room, the beds were comfortable, but OMG the Internet was craptacular. The clerk at the front desk acknowledged that it is a problem, and that management is looking into it. She said it's worse when the weather is poor (and we had a lot of rain), so I am presuming that they might be using a satellite connection. Nevertheless, I told her to tell her "that Zappie (the wifi network) is crappy." She agreed to do so.
Today, we are driving to Wellington. It's 3.5 hours away, and JQ is handling the first shift on the road. The countryside is beautiful, but the roads are winding back and forth like whoa! One of us is gripping the steering wheel and staring at the road with steely-eyed determination, and the other one is anxiously stomping the floor of the car (where the brakes might be if we were in Canada).
The car is sweeping around curves, brushing up against rock faces, and the speed limits seem to us to be very high for such winding roads. We presume that Kiwis are simply used to their seatbelts locking and the g-forces kicking in. "Don't worry, the inertial dampers will kick in any moment now."
It does make me wonder, though. New Zealand has strict rules about entry into the country because supposedly they have a problem with people not leaving. What if it's just that the people were driving down the roads, their car flew off into a ravine, or tumbled to the bottom of some grassy hills, and they were never heard from again. And then New Zealand grumbles about another foreigner who didn't leave the country like they were supposed to. 😬
Also, since we're talking about driving, what is up with the lanes? Winding, winding roads (did I mention that they wind?), and it's almost always got the dashed line. I mean, what is up with that? Do they have x-ray vision - can they see through hills? Or do they just pass really really fast? Maybe it's because we're from Saskatchewan, but they really don't seem to believe in the whole "you should have a line of sight before passing - excuse me, overtaking - before overtaking another car."
And let's not even mention the semi trucks. Good Lord, they're terrifying on these roads. There's nothing like being on a spaghetti-thin stretch of road, watching a giant wide-ass logging truck barrelling towards you at 100kph on a curve. Gahhh!
However, one of the more pleasant road obstructions in rural New Zealand is seeing cattle or sheep coming down the road. This group of sheep was very politely staying in their own lane, and heading to pasture, I presume. They were being followed by a farmer riding on an ATV, with his two dogs perched behind him.
After about an hour and a half, JQ found herself a coffee shop in a tiny town, and immediately screeched to a halt. Time to re-caffeinate herself! Since she needs to focus all of her attention on her coffee-savouring duties, I took over the driving.
The GPS continues to direct us down strange little country roads to avoid some obstacles in its way. JQ checks the maps, and presumes that it is routing us around towns that would slow us down. Because we are not New Zealanders, we don't drive as fast on those smaller country roads, so I'm not sure how much time it saves us, but eventually we get on the main highway to Wellington, and the road mostly evens out, and we are moving onto a divided highway. More traffic, higher speeds, but easier driving in a way.
We come around a curve, and suddenly we're driving on the coastline, with the ocean off to the side. Both JQ and I ooh and ahh at the sight.
Unfortunately, we're hitting Wellington around 4:30 p.m., which is not the optimal time if one is wanting to avoid heavy traffic. Too bad for us! Our GPS is threading us through streets that are really narrow and winding. You'd think we'd have had enough practice on the country roads, but it's quite another thing when there's this much traffic going every which way.
Our last turn for our hotel, and I'm supposed to turn down a narrow side street, traffic is trying to turn off that street, traffic is coming at me from the other direction, and pedestrians are skittering everywhere. I start to turn, hesitate, then the oncoming traffic is barrelling at me, so I go, and I totally squeak past the bumper of a parked car. But squeak I mean, JQ goes "Eeeek!" and the car goes "squeakkk." 😱 Damn it! So close.
I pull over into the parking lot, then get out to see the car on the street. The guy who owns the car was already standing there, and he is surprisingly unconcerned. I apologize profusely, explain we have plenty of insurance (we got the max when we rented), but he is so not fussed. He thinks his car fared better than mine: his bumper just has another little scuff to join the others on the bumper, and our rental car has a new scratch on the side. Oops. It did come pre-scratched, but all the other scratches are on the front bumper, so the side one is new scarring for my poor little Qashqai.
We check in at the Capital View Motel. Our original plan was to stay for one night, then catch the Interislander Ferry to Picton, overnight there, then head back. However, that ferry costs a lot of money for such a short jaunt, so we changed it to be the whole weekend in Wellington. Because of that change, we are staying only one night at the Capital View (because it was booked over the weekend), and then we're moving to the West Plaza Hotel.
After seeing the room at Capital View, I kind of wish we could stay longer. Again, a good-sized spacious hotel room, with windows on two sides, and a nice big kitchen and washroom. No tubs, though. Bath tubs don't exist in New Zealand hotels. Not in our price range, anyway.
After hauling our luggage upstairs, we grab our jackets (it's kind of turned cool and windy), and head out to explore.
We are just two blocks off Cuba Street which seems to be the start of "super-cool Wellington." It kind of reminds me of a giant Broadway Avenue. Most of the shops and restaurants are housed in old buildings. There are multiple street art displays, and entertainment and buskers. We spy a comic shop and wander inside, and yes, us geeks are the same in every country - it feels like familiar territory. 😎
There are a number of tattoo shops, and JQ is greatly enamoured of the Maori-style tattoos. What would I think if she got a chin tattoo like the Maori women? Well, first, I think she is not a Maori woman, and second, I think that she should think twice about that. If you really must ink yourself, try something less "on your face" to start out with. (I know, I know - I should have encouraged her. It would have been fun.)
Both of us are feeling hungry, and were hoping for a Thai restaurant, but the one we are staking out is slow to open. It says it opens at 5:30, but is not open, even 15 minutes after that. Due to JQ's delicate constitution, we cannot just go anywhere, so we walk around and find a Malaysian restaurant that suits her and me. Satay Village! It was delicious.
We head back up to our hotel before it gets dark (and colder), and settle in. The wind picks up, and it starts raining as well, and holy cow, it is windy out there.
JQ, ever the researcher, has looked it up on the Internet, and Wellington is arguably one of the world's windiest cities. (Yes, I know there are a lot of contenders for that crown.) Nevertheless, it is definitely pretty darn windy tonight!
When I dropped the key off to check out, I did say we liked the room, the beds were comfortable, but OMG the Internet was craptacular. The clerk at the front desk acknowledged that it is a problem, and that management is looking into it. She said it's worse when the weather is poor (and we had a lot of rain), so I am presuming that they might be using a satellite connection. Nevertheless, I told her to tell her "that Zappie (the wifi network) is crappy." She agreed to do so.
Today, we are driving to Wellington. It's 3.5 hours away, and JQ is handling the first shift on the road. The countryside is beautiful, but the roads are winding back and forth like whoa! One of us is gripping the steering wheel and staring at the road with steely-eyed determination, and the other one is anxiously stomping the floor of the car (where the brakes might be if we were in Canada).
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The car is sweeping around curves, brushing up against rock faces, and the speed limits seem to us to be very high for such winding roads. We presume that Kiwis are simply used to their seatbelts locking and the g-forces kicking in. "Don't worry, the inertial dampers will kick in any moment now."
It does make me wonder, though. New Zealand has strict rules about entry into the country because supposedly they have a problem with people not leaving. What if it's just that the people were driving down the roads, their car flew off into a ravine, or tumbled to the bottom of some grassy hills, and they were never heard from again. And then New Zealand grumbles about another foreigner who didn't leave the country like they were supposed to. 😬
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| Because my eyesight extends around corners, passing here will not be a problem. |
And let's not even mention the semi trucks. Good Lord, they're terrifying on these roads. There's nothing like being on a spaghetti-thin stretch of road, watching a giant wide-ass logging truck barrelling towards you at 100kph on a curve. Gahhh!
However, one of the more pleasant road obstructions in rural New Zealand is seeing cattle or sheep coming down the road. This group of sheep was very politely staying in their own lane, and heading to pasture, I presume. They were being followed by a farmer riding on an ATV, with his two dogs perched behind him.
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The GPS continues to direct us down strange little country roads to avoid some obstacles in its way. JQ checks the maps, and presumes that it is routing us around towns that would slow us down. Because we are not New Zealanders, we don't drive as fast on those smaller country roads, so I'm not sure how much time it saves us, but eventually we get on the main highway to Wellington, and the road mostly evens out, and we are moving onto a divided highway. More traffic, higher speeds, but easier driving in a way.
We come around a curve, and suddenly we're driving on the coastline, with the ocean off to the side. Both JQ and I ooh and ahh at the sight.
Unfortunately, we're hitting Wellington around 4:30 p.m., which is not the optimal time if one is wanting to avoid heavy traffic. Too bad for us! Our GPS is threading us through streets that are really narrow and winding. You'd think we'd have had enough practice on the country roads, but it's quite another thing when there's this much traffic going every which way.
Our last turn for our hotel, and I'm supposed to turn down a narrow side street, traffic is trying to turn off that street, traffic is coming at me from the other direction, and pedestrians are skittering everywhere. I start to turn, hesitate, then the oncoming traffic is barrelling at me, so I go, and I totally squeak past the bumper of a parked car. But squeak I mean, JQ goes "Eeeek!" and the car goes "squeakkk." 😱 Damn it! So close.
I pull over into the parking lot, then get out to see the car on the street. The guy who owns the car was already standing there, and he is surprisingly unconcerned. I apologize profusely, explain we have plenty of insurance (we got the max when we rented), but he is so not fussed. He thinks his car fared better than mine: his bumper just has another little scuff to join the others on the bumper, and our rental car has a new scratch on the side. Oops. It did come pre-scratched, but all the other scratches are on the front bumper, so the side one is new scarring for my poor little Qashqai.
We check in at the Capital View Motel. Our original plan was to stay for one night, then catch the Interislander Ferry to Picton, overnight there, then head back. However, that ferry costs a lot of money for such a short jaunt, so we changed it to be the whole weekend in Wellington. Because of that change, we are staying only one night at the Capital View (because it was booked over the weekend), and then we're moving to the West Plaza Hotel.
After seeing the room at Capital View, I kind of wish we could stay longer. Again, a good-sized spacious hotel room, with windows on two sides, and a nice big kitchen and washroom. No tubs, though. Bath tubs don't exist in New Zealand hotels. Not in our price range, anyway.
After hauling our luggage upstairs, we grab our jackets (it's kind of turned cool and windy), and head out to explore.
We are just two blocks off Cuba Street which seems to be the start of "super-cool Wellington." It kind of reminds me of a giant Broadway Avenue. Most of the shops and restaurants are housed in old buildings. There are multiple street art displays, and entertainment and buskers. We spy a comic shop and wander inside, and yes, us geeks are the same in every country - it feels like familiar territory. 😎
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Both of us are feeling hungry, and were hoping for a Thai restaurant, but the one we are staking out is slow to open. It says it opens at 5:30, but is not open, even 15 minutes after that. Due to JQ's delicate constitution, we cannot just go anywhere, so we walk around and find a Malaysian restaurant that suits her and me. Satay Village! It was delicious.
We head back up to our hotel before it gets dark (and colder), and settle in. The wind picks up, and it starts raining as well, and holy cow, it is windy out there.
JQ, ever the researcher, has looked it up on the Internet, and Wellington is arguably one of the world's windiest cities. (Yes, I know there are a lot of contenders for that crown.) Nevertheless, it is definitely pretty darn windy tonight!
I think you should enlist a coffee company to sponsor your blog. I read a post, and I want to go savour a cup of coffee.
ReplyDeleteI did tell JQ that she should have a competing blog, because the differing points of view would be hilarious. And she could more adequately describe the coffee savouring process, which I just describe as "lazy layabout."
DeleteBTW, Wellington is a big coffee spot, so head on down, coffee-lovers.