When I woke up, I stepped outside as I do every morning to survey the weather and judge whether or not I could go out anywhere. The sun was shining over the sea highlighting all the different colours in the ocean and there were people wind sailing and fishing and if you turned around to face the hills, you saw low lying grey clouds moving rapidly with the wind. I thought it'd be best if I hurried on out to beat the rain again, so I phoned my Mom quick and headed off to the train station carrying fleeces and umbrellas and sandals in my bag because I really didn't know what the weather would throw at me.
I got to the train station and began to feel very anxious that 'I wasn't doing it right'. I sat down sheepishly on a bench in front of the railway station shop on the side of the tracks that the lady from a couple days ago had shown me was the right way into Wellington and I waited. I noticed that there was nobody else on the platform, but I thought that maybe people just weren't going into the city today for whatever reason. Half an hour passed which meant the train was due, but it didn't arrive. I decided that even though it was lovely New Zealand, trains probably still fall foul of the same problems with tardiness that they do back home in the UK. I was feeling more and more self conscious though as people were walking past me from one end of the platform down to the underpass on the other side. I bundled up as the cold Southerly wind was picking up, when I man came up to me holding a piece of paper and said, 'You do know the trains aren't running today don't you?'. I said thank you to him as he directed me to where the replacement bus service was being run from and cursed all the other people who'd just walked passed me without saying a word.
I too went through the underpass to the other side and found a park with an archery club and a large parking area, but no sign as to whether or not this was the right place. I saw a lady standing twiddling something in her fingertips which I assumed to be a ticket and asked her if I was in the right place. She assured me that I was and asked in which direction I was going and told me she'd put me on the right bus when it came, South, not North. We began making small talk about public transport and she asked me where abouts in England I came from. Tired of saying "Northamptonshire" and having people nod blankly at me, I just said in the middle of England. She told me that she used to go to the Midlands when she was younger as her grandfather and a lot of her family lived in a place called Earls Barton, and at this point I was absolutely shocked! I told her that I was actually from Northamptonshire and how impressed I was that a Kiwi would know of the place. As the bus drew up, she asked me if I was visiting anyone here in NZ and I explained that I didn't know anyone over here and she replied "I can't have that!". When we boarded the bus and sat next to one another, she wrote down her name, Sandy, and her telephone numbers, saying that she lived about 2 minutes away from Moana Lodge and would love to have me over for lunch. She got off the bus in Kia Ora before my stop and I assured her that I'd give her a call later that night when I got back from the city.
When I got into Wellington, it was spitting a little. I spied a McDonalds opposite the station and couldn't resist the chance to get a precooked, perfectly sized meal that would fill me up for under 9 bucks. I noticed that there were a lot of young people, my age, dressed up like there was something big going on, and I couldn't reason that it was because of the Neil Diamond concert that was on!! I headed out towards the museum by the waterfront and got sucked into everyone all swilling beer and giving piggy backs and falling over. I ducked into an arts market that I found to have a look round and escape the huge crowds and loud shouting and the songs distorted by the wind. I bought a couple of things, one for myself and one for Sam and carried on towards the Te Papa National Museum of New Zealand. The further I walked, I could see that it was actually a huge music festival going on, called Homegrown. I toyed with the idea of perhaps trying to buy a ticket, but overheard one girl on the phone telling somebody that it was sold out. By this time, the rain was beginning to pour, so I took refuge in the museum as quickly as I could.
The museum was great. I eyed around to see where I had to pay and how much and felt like I had to sneak undetected into the exhibits until I saw a 'keep Te Papa free' donations box. It was quite a big museum, on lots of different levels, and the first exhibit I entered really impressed me as it was very technological and had a wall that reminded me of the computer Tom Cruise uses in Minority Report, where you use a little stick to control and manipulate images and colour and sounds on a huge screen. I learned about the history of the Earth and then New Zealand's history, native animals and natural disasters. On the next level, I learned about New Zealand's agricultural history and how things were introduced over the years. There was also a place called 'Bush City' which was an outside artificial bush showing you the different sorts of landscapes you can find out in rural New Zealand. On the third level, was a whole exhibit on the Maori and emigration into the country from all over the world and it's ties with Great Britain. On the next was an art gallery full of New Zealand artists and a featured exhibition on a Kiwi photographer who managed to take photographs from all over the world in the fifties sixties and seventies, and on the final level was a sculpture exhibit.
I spent nearly four hours in the museum revelling in the fun of the interactive pieces downstairs and the tranquility and peace of the galleries upstairs, walking at an incredibly slow and annoying rate just to make sure that I didn't miss anything. But the time I'd finished, it was after half five and the crowds were in full surge walking around the waterfront. I believe the different stages were placed in various places all over the quay. I went back to the station and got on the train to Waikanae (the last Kia Ora on my line) and took the train home, having to get off at Pouirua to change to the bus back to Plimmerton. I phoned Sandy when I got back who asked me how lunch sounded the following day. She said she'd pick me up at 11 because she lived at the top of one of the hills I spent a lot of time looking at. I had had an awful feeling that this lady was too good to be true and was half expecting her to not pick up when I called and left the conversation feeling very good indeed.
I had half a bottle of wine in the evening whilst watching Peep Show on my netbook, before eventually tiring and hitting the hay.
No comments:
Post a Comment