A Capital Time in Windy Wellington

I finally made it to a bar in New Zealand! Hooray! Well, I was glad that I had waited until I got somewhere with a cracking nightlife. Kaikoura has about ten people living in it and all of them were out that night- from the guy in the overly hairy jumper who was too drunk to stand and so leant on the corner of our table slurring incomprehensible nonsense at us, to the under-age girl vomiting up her guts by a van outside, taking in the pretty young things in their revealing tops which seemed to have a lot less fabric than the occassion demanded and the 'blokes' around the pool table with their older Thai girlfriends. I swear that New Zealand has more white kids with dreadlocks per square foot than it has sheep.

We did meet a bunch of drunk old blokes who were flying around the two island in light aircraft. They took it in turns to fly each day and I hope that the guys we met were off the next day since their breath could have stopped an albatross at fifty paces. It was an interesting night and I even managed to stay out of my bed until after midnight- which I think was a first for me in New Zealand.

And also a bit of bad timing since I had to get up the next day to get the bus out of there. Early, well too early for me. The trip to Picton was uneventful and we arrived an hour early and sat around in the ferry terminal until it was time to go. I could see fantastic looking scenery out of the ferry window for the five minutes or so that I was actually awake. Even though I had only had four pints the night before- of the delightful local brew 'Sheep Shagger's Lager' and we had stayed on the Sheep Shagger all night- my head was not what it should be and my body was craving bed. I fought the craving for long enough to go for something to eat in Wellington then pop to see a movie before collapsing into bed before midnight.

Getting up early the next day I was at Te Papa- the museum before eleven am which I think is pretty good going for a Sunday. The museum is huge and stuffed to the brim with fascinating displays and it is FREE! We spent hours there- me and an Irish girl I had met in Kaikoura- my partner in the whole Sheep Shagger expedition- before going up a hill in a cable car, a train pulled up by cables, and walking back down to the city. We might have stopped for a couple of beers- it being a Sunday afternoon and all- before heading back to the hostel to cook and drink red wine in front of the tv.

Tonight might be another crazy night of movies, I think, though I have just bought the fourth in the Thursday Next series of books and if it wasn't for Jennifer (the Irish girl) I might have just hidden in bed reading all night! Today we went to the travel desk at the hostel and all they were able to suggest was catching a ferry over to Days Bay. Which we did, not knowing that the return journey was something of a school ferry and were inundated with kids- yikes!

Anyway, I am leaving the capital tomorrow and heading to Napier where I hope that it will get a little sunnier again.