Making It Rain In Napier/Getting Wet in Wellington
Napier and Wellington, New Zealand
We drive to Napier in the pouring rain and check in to Art House Backpackers. We think we deserve a hot shower and a bed tonight. Since we’re not feeling like walking up and down Marine Parade to find some good food in this weather, we end up driving to Burger King, where I basically swallow a double Whopper with cheese in seconds. We catch up on our correspondence (Craig messages his girlfriend, I post a picture on Instagram) and then we get back to the room, which we share with just two other guys that are hanging out in the TV room. I fall asleep in my soft, warm bed and don’t wake up until our room mates get up and pack their stuff super early in the morning.
We are supposed to drive to Wellington today, but after doing our laundry I suggest we stay another day. Napier has an Art Deco theme going on throughout town and in any other kind of weather I would have loved to properly explore this little retro-looking town.
Craig agrees, so we walk up and down the streets and get some food shopping done, then Kathmandu opens and I spontaneously decide to spend $225 on a pair of hiking boots. Most people would probably buy their gear before going tramping, but I like to live dangerously. At the sports shop Rebel we end up buying a rain coat for $50, and at The Warehouse we buy some cooking gear, so we don’t end up hungry like the last time.
We then check in to YHA right next to Art House and have some sandwiches and update our itinerary. After several hours just charging our electronics and having a shower, we go to Reading Cinema and watch Beauty and the Beast for the small price of $10, since it’s Tuesday. The movie is beautiful, but of course not as great as the original, and we walk back to the hostel in the rain and discuss the (poor) casting choices. After all the popcorn and M&Ms we aren’t really hungry, so we just get in bed and do some reading until we fall asleep.
It’s still raining heavily the next day, but we must keep marching. We get in the car and drive down towards Wellington, with a quick stop in Dannevirke for coffee.
In Wellington, we end up at Oriental Parade and pay for 2 hours of parking, because we feel like we need to actually see a bit of Wellington, rather than just pass through.
We end up at the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa, where we only have enough time to explore the Social History floor. Then we drive to Camp Elsdon outside of town, where camping for the night will only set us back $10. We seek shelter in the kitchen and watch the news for the first time in ages and chat to Hendrick from Germany who’s sleeping in a tent on the soaked grass. Since our schedule is pretty messed up by now, I am yawning by 7 o’clock, and go to bed not long after.
In the morning we drive back to Wellington to get on the Interislander ferry to South Island. We park Marshmallow with the other cars on the boat and find a seat at the café and eat an expensive bacon and egg sandwich and have some coffee. The sea’s extremely wavy and I start to get sick, but not as sick as the elderly woman by the table next to us, who has to get in a wheelchair and roll to the back of the boat. I go to the bathroom to throw up, but the long line of people in the same boat (get it?) makes me give up on that. I move out in the hallway, where there’s a cushion to lie on. The staff gets me a bag and a cup of ice cubes and I move to get Craig and when we come back, two girls have stolen my cushion. Cunts. I cover myself in our rain coats and fall asleep on the hallway floor for a while. Then an English girl from a big group of people drinking by the café joins some guys next to us, and the peace has been disturbed. I get super angry and we move to another café at the back of the boat. After 3½ hours of misery we finally reach Picton on the South Island and I couldn’t be happier.