Half-way through my trip as well as half-way through my two weeks in Wellington. Although I’m taking things easy, time just seems to fly by. As you can see from my tweets, I’m feeling very happy here and having a marvelous time. I guess a part of me will always consider Wellington my second home…
Arrival in Wellington
When I left New Plymouth yesterday morning, it was beautiful weather and I got to see the mountain (Mt. Taranaki, that is) in its full glory for the first time since my arrival.
I had such a great time with Denise, Ross & co. but honestly, I had butterflies in my stomach when the bus finally got to Wellington (it’s a 7 hour trip that took almost 8). First you get to see the city from the bay, and the bus stop is right at the train station, where the railway campus of Victoria University is, where I had most my classes. I ended up taking a taxi to my accommodation, a student hall that rents out its rooms during the summer trimester – I get to pay by the week for my very own room (very basic, with shared facilities but my own and with 4 gigs of free wifi to boot), which ends up being quite a bit cheaper than even a dorm room in the YHA would be.
Taranaki
Visiting my oldest kiwi friends Denise & Ross (we met in California in 1999!) and their four kids is almost like coming home every time – when my bus arrived Monday night, they were waiting for me, the kids jumping up and down, screaming my name. It was so cool, especially considering that the youngest was only about a year old when I last saw her, but they’ve all completely embraced me as a family member that they just happen to see very rarely. A great way to start my time here!
Denise also took the time out of her busy days to go for some lovely walks with me, allowing me to revel in the beauties of both New Zeland forest and sea. This country is simply so stunning, it takes my breath away…
You can find all my Taranaki photos here (not just this year’s but all of them), the photo set for this trip is here.
I’ll be here until Monday morning, when I’ll catch the bus to Wellington. As much as I love it here in New Plymouth and with my friends, going to Wellington feels like going home…
Photos & admin
It’s 7am – I managed to sleep until about 5:30, which isn’t too bad, I guess, considering the 12 hour time difference.
As always I’ll be posting my pics to Flickr, to a special set for this trip: New Zealand 2013
Right now no actual photos from NZ, because I spent most of yesterday on the bus where motion sickness makes me wary of snapping pics (not that the landscape wouldn’t have warranted it – the journey from Auckland to New Plymouth has lots of turns and bends, but is also rather stunning). This is the only one so far, taken after I finally arrived at the airport hotel:
I’ll be spending the week with my friends Denise, Ross & their four kids near New Plymouth, so I have lovely wireless access. This gave me the opportunity to find a new Twitter plugin, so we’re rid of those annoying single line posts and should get a daily digest of all my tweets instead.
I promise the next post will actually be an update about the trip! 🙂
Tweets from 2013-11-24
- Short stop in Singapore to change planes. I love Changi airport, but it's slightly surreal with its fake trees & birdsong… 12:47:59, 2013-11-24
- Kia ora, Aotearoa, I made it! Am in the airport hotel, freshly showered – bliss. 1:30am & jetlagged, will try to unwind w/ a ginger beer. 🙂 14:29:33, 2013-11-24
Tweeting: At the airport,
At the airport, just said goodbye to my mom. Now on my way to the gate. Guess who managed to bang up her knee (again) last night?
Tweeting: What was I thinking
What was I thinking w/ this huge suitcase? It’s not too heavy but terribly awkward & doesn’t roll smoothly. Good thing I’m not going far. :p
Singapore
Arrived in Singapore and was met by Amy last night. Unfortunately I now have a proper cold/flu and am coughing and running a temperature, in addition to some inexplainable stomach problems. Despite this I’m enjoying spending time with Amy again and we had fun shopping in the city today. Monsoon is early this year, so currently it’s raining outside.
Also, a photo of Nancy’s lovely parents and brother in front of their house in Claremont (suburb of Perth):
Perth: Last post from down under
Leaving Australia tomorrow to head to Singapore for 3 days. I’ve had a lovelylovely time here in Perth, seriously, mostly thanks to Nancy and her awesome family, who spoiled me rotten. 🙂
More things I did here: Explored the beautiful Kings Park Botanic Gardens, visited the lovely Perth Zoo, another trip to Fremantle (or Freo, as the locals call it), a family outing down the coast, lunch with Chris and Gill from the Uluru tour and Scarborough Beach with Fiona (who I’d met on the bus to Monkey Mia) and her boyfriend. Oh, and played with Nancy’s three cute cats (Rogue, Melma and Lenny) and a lonely little dog named Alby on the way to the train station here. I might also have indulged in a little bit of retail therapy and caught a bit of a cold, which I hope will go away and stop bothering me.
As always, all photos can be found on Flickr here. And a cute little video of a monkey playing at the zoo:
Perth
On Monday I arrived at my final Australian destination, where I’m staying with my friend Nancy and her family. I’m enjoying myself a lot, and not just because I have my own room (even with ensuite bath!) and wireless internet… *g* On Tuesday I met up with Barbara (who I’d met in Broome) and we went to the pretty harbour town of Fremantle. Yesterday I explored Perth’s CBD (Central Business District) and went to see a concert – Panic at the Disco, Cobra Starship and The Academy Is… – which was awesome despite it getting quite squishy in the first few rows sometimes. Almost the best bit was that I ran into Panic’s drummer, Spencer Smith, in the street while out sightseeing. 🙂
As always, all photos can be found here. Less than a week now until I leave down under and head to Singapore for a couple of days…
Also, I discovered another little movie I made in Monkey Mia – pelicans vying for fish leftovers at sunset: