Wellington and Beyond

Note: I am a little bit behind as I will be for much of the trip so when I say yesterday, tomorrow, speak in present or past tense, and tell you we are somewhere, I am probably lying to you.

And for the second order of business, Happy Birthday Jason... hope you are enjoying it old buddy ol pal.

We arrived in Wellington to a party already going on. The Cuba St. Carnival, unbeknownst to us, was in full swing as the biggest weekend of the year with concerts, fair rides, parades, and people, lots of people. Tobey had no idea we were coming because neither of us owns a phone over here and we had made the decision to come three and half hours before. Armed with his address, we showed up to his place only to realize we didn't have his apartment number. After loitering in the lobby and trying to figure out how to dupe the security guard into divulging Tobey and Riley's information, we decided to walk around New Zealand's capital city in the midst of a festival, and find our two short and blond friends. After a few hours of futility with plenty of entertainment and people watching, we headed back to the van. We changed on the sidewalk, looking raggedy and trying to straighten suitcase clothing to venture into the night looking half respectable. Once suitably changed, I was peering at Tobey's apartment building down the street, racking my brain for options. Yelling TOOBEYYY! at the windows had already failed. At this moment, resigned to failure, I saw two people in the distance walk out of the front door. I went to preschool with the kid so I knew immediately who it was and began running down the street yelling. I swear Tobey has a knack for showing up at random times.

They were just as surprised and happy as us and we proceeded to downtown wellington, next to a beautiful harbor, and saw what the festival was all about.

In our haste to get the heck out of palmerston north and excitement to get to wellington, we travelled a bit further south than we needed to with a week left on the North Island before our ferry. In short, we ended up doing a backassward route and headed back north along the east coast to Napier and fiddled around in this country. We stayed in two hostels, usually booking a two man room, and having the third stay in the van. No reason to get a bed when you have a perfecttly adequate mattress outside. We beached it one day in Napier, took a 12 mile day hike along Cape Kidnappers the next. The hike ended where a massive nesting Gannet colony sits atop a plateau overlooking the ocean. Jonathan the biologist geeked out over this while Dan and I just enjoyed the beautiful coastline with sheer cliffs and green ocean water. The last two days were spent in the Tararua Forest park which is filled with thick vegetation and the Otaki river with deep pools and cold mountain fed water. We spent our time alone at our campsite tossing the rugby ball, fishing the up and down the river, and taking in some starry nights. Our ankles and legs were the casualties of this campsite due to some harmless looking gnats that pack a mean bite. I now spend my time alternating between itching madly and applying bug bite cream.

We arrived in Wellington again and showed up unannounced at Tobey's door to his amusement. Wellington, we were told by our guidebook, is the undisputed party capital of New Zealand. We carried out a test (the second in a week) of our guidebook's accuracy and I would say we all agree 100%.

Now I am sitting in the back of Big Jolly (itching my ankles) awaiting the Interislander ferry to the South Island, listening to her new sound system. Jolly, by the way, does not have a working stereo so we just purchased some portable ipod speakers and slapped them on the dashboard. Its starting to look like I will be a certified country music expert by the end of the trip. The other two are currently belting something cheesy and Dan just beeped and waved at some more random girls with a big ol' goofy grin. He is certainly dependable in that regard.

Over the car ramp and on our way. Jonathan and Dan catch up on some sleep that Wellington stole and I find myself wandering around the empty and rainy decks of the ferry looking back at Wellington and staring over the choppy seas of the Cook Straight. The rain splashes and drops off the railings as the ferry churns along past misty coastlines. Goodbye to one island, a happy hello to another.