Time passes so quick, I've been away from home 1 month now and it has flown by so fast. I dont know about everyone at home but for me it doesn't feel like a month atall.
Today and yesterday I explored Wellington a little bit more. Yesterday I managed to find the cable car, I was walking along completley the wrong street the day before hence me not finding it. I was kind of expecting to see cables running across the top of the street but me and Wellington have different ideas of a cable car. Their idea is a tram basically, but it gets pulled up a hill.
I jumped on the tram and took the 5 minute ride up to the top. Nothing special but you have to do it if your in Wellington I suppose. It's supposed ot be the home of cable cars or something, most towns and citys in New Zealand claim they invented or made famous something though.
At the top of the hill was the cable car musuem. Since I had the whole day free I walked round very slowly and read ALL of the information boards on the walls. The other people must have thought I was an avid cable car fan, however I now know all there is to know about cable cars in New Zealand. Some parts were fairly interesting, I learned about how their system came into place and how it developed and stuff. There were a few old cable cars on display too. Downstairs was the winding room, still intact and working (one of the few left in the world apparently) that was originaly used to pull the cars up the hill. Cool stuff.
Also at the top of the hill were the Botanical Gardens. I decided to check them out since I was up top. In the gardens are 3 observatories, one of which is the national observatory of NZ and is open to the public, normaly. I was gutted to find it was closed for refurbishment so I couldnt visit. I did do a little walk that took me round all of the observatories though which was nice. Good views of the city from up there too.
I then took the main path through the gardens, past lots of trees and some cacti and stuff which was cool. At the bottom was the "main garden" loads of pretty flowers and a duck pond. I could have walked all the way down and into the city but I'd bought a return cable car ticket so I didnt want to waste $2! After a wee sit and a read on a bench I headed back onto the cable car and down into the city.
At night I bought a bit more shopping, since I can keep it nice and cool in my cool bag, made tortellini for tea, and read for the rest of the night. I went to bed fairly early thinking I'd never get to sleep. I did... untill 1.30 am when the fire alarm in the hostel went off. I was not impressed. I woke up not really knowing what was going on but there was a really really annoying noise. Everyone in my room was jumping out of bed and sticking clothes on, as much as I wanted just to lay there I thought I'd better follow. The stairwell was full of people going outside and there were fire trucks outside so I thought it might be pretty serious. But no, 5 minutes later we were let back into the building and it took me ages to get back to sleep.
This morning I had a bit of a long lie to compensate for the fire alarm incident. I had a late breakfast/lunch and decided to go sit on the waterfront at the harbour. Since it was easter I treated myself to an ice cream, seriously pistachio ice cream is so so so good, it is over here anyway, you have to try it. I sat and listened to music for a bout an hour just staring at the mountains beyond the harbour, in my own little world. Once that had worn off I decided to give Ashley a phone and keep her up even later after her night out. I was pleasantly suprised to find that Stephen and Duncan were with her and wanted to speak to me. It was awesome to hear my friends voices again, it had been too long.
Full of salty sea air I left the harbour and made for starbucks. Well I orignaly made for a book shop but they were all shut, its rediculous how serious they take easter holidays over here. I got myself a coffe at starbucks though and sat in there for a good 2 hours reading my book and writing a bit in my journal that I have with me.
Tonight I bumped into some poeple that I had met in Taupo in the hostel and impressed them with the egg fried rice I'd made for tea. Sweet potato and everything in it, was awesome. Had some banter then I made for an internet cafe I'd seen earlier in the day. $5 for their night pasts, 8.30pm to 8.30am!!! How good is that!? And here I am untill I need to catch the ferry in the morning, hopefully I wont be too dead.
Today I was emailed by a fruitpicking company that I had sent a message to. I emailed a load of them saying that I was heading to Nelson and asking if they had work. Only this one has got back but it looks quite promising. They're in a town about an hour away from Nelson, which I can easily get a bus to, and they have on sight accommodation. Not sure how much this will be, or what the pay is like but I do know I would be getting payed by how much fruit I pick and not per hour. The only down side of the offer is that it's a minimum of 3 weeks, meaning I would have to push my flights back about a week-ish. Although I'd rather not, since it's gonna cost to do that and I miss home!, i have to conisder it. I'll give it a bit longer anyway, atleast until I'm in Nelson and see if I have any other offers or can find anything else there.
