Catching Up!

I realized today that you guys are severely behind when it comes to what I write about and where I actually am, so I am going to catch you up! The last thing I wrote about was going to the glow worm caves and spending the night in National Park. That was a few days ago, and I am in Nelson now on the South Island. Here's what happened in between!

After leaving the very uneventful National Park we headed to our last North Island stop Wellington. On the way to Wellington we stopped at a place that I of all people found most interesting. We stopped at the jandal fence! If you are thinking to your self, “What in the hell is a jandal!?” Think Japanese Sandal, jandal is what they call flip flops! This fence has started along the highway and people put their old jandals on the fence. Honestly when Kate told me about this fence I really wanted to put my own jandals on, but seeing as I haven't worn full shoes since I arrived in NZ that would mean I would be walking around barefoot. Although that is socially acceptable around here, I can't imagine it would be the most comfortable thing to do. So I took pictures of it and with it and if I ever pass by it again I will put some jandals on.

So They had told me that Rotorua was a city then when I arrived it wasn't a city at all. It was more of an over grown town. It must have just fit in the city guidelines somehow because it doesn't look city like at all. So they said that Wellington was the capital city I thought to myself, “Ah, you fooled me once with that city business, not this time.” So I hadn't planned on doing much in Wellington but checking off one of my list entries. When we pulled into Wellington I was surprised to see a proper city in front of me. It had office buildings, public transport, stop lights, etc. Although it is smaller then Auckland it is still a real city, so that was a bit of a game changer for me. My plan was to upload photos and update blogs and things because there wouldn't be much to do. Instead I wanted to go out and explore Wellington. So I dumped my bags in the room and Jolene and I took off to explore the city. For the record, Jolene is the girl from Alberta that I met on the bus from Auckland. Her and I befriended each other and hung out until Nelson when I stayed and she left. Our first mission was to check off my list entry from Sue. Number 14: When in Wellington go to Willis street and have a cup of coffee at Johns Lunch. So turns out Willis street wasn't far from Nomads where I was staying so we took a little walk up there. We ended up coming onto Willis street in the middle and I didn't know where Johns Lunch was so we guessed and headed down to the right. We found a street sign and took the photo with me under it and then headed off in search of Johns Lunch. Which I would like to note that if you people want me to do the things on the list they have to be REAL things! We walked to the end of Willis on one side, crossed to the other and started walking back up towards the way we came. I noticed two people on a smoke break on the sidewalk so I thought I would ask them if they knew where Johns was. I approached the two girls (or what I thought was two women but turns out it was a woman and a very fem gay fella) and asked them if they knew where John's Lunch on Willis was. They looked confused a bit then one asked if it was a high end restaurant. Umm with a name like John's Lunch.........probably not. So anyway long story short they were no help what so ever, they basically told me to walk up and down Willis to see if I could find it. Like I already wasn't doing that. So we kept walking and couldn't find it so we decided to stop into a hotel and see if they knew where it was. I went into a hotel lobby and there was not a soul in sight. There was absolutely no one around. So we left there and went to the coffee shop next to there, and again, there

was no one around. It looked like someone walked out in the middle of making a sandwich. There was a sandwich sitting on the cutting board with a knife laying beside it and not a soul around. I even waited a few minutes to see if anyone was in the back but nope, not a single person. Then I thought, geeze maybe they know about something I don't, are we being evacuated?? We kept walking, convinced that if we just walked a little further would find it. We were also trying to make it to Te Papa the national museum before it closed, so we didn't have all day to be tramping around Willis street looking for John's Lunch. We walked almost to the end of them street and I cam across a place called Willis Lunch Cafe. So I went in and asked the woman behind the cash if she knew were John's Lunch was on Willis. She said she had worked on that street for 17 years and she had never ever heard of such a place. So I said, great can I have a Chai Latte? So that is as close as she gets with the Johns lunch! I am going back to Wellington before I go back to Auckland and I will finish the street, but I am not so convinced that it is a for reals spot!

Me, an American Twit, Jolene and Kate.

After hunting around for a non existent coffee shop we went to Te Papa to see as much as we could before it closed. This museum is completely free and huge! I will definitely go back there too because the amount of time we had certainly didn't give it justice. There is so much to see there and we just didn't have enough time. Also for a museum it is really well done and very interactive. I really enjoyed the displays that I did see and I look forward to my time back in Wellington. Part of staying at Nomads is you got a free meal at their partner bar Blend. So Jolene and I as travellers our favourite word is FREE. Someone says, “ Would you be interested in a free..” “Yep!” They also had drink specials on for people staying at Nomads. I appreciate that the hostel bars know we are all on a fixed and small budget so they make really really cheap drinks, but really, I don't need that! All it does is encourage me to drink which equals feeling like a bag of shit the next day. How are you going to say no to $3 champagne and 5 dollar beers? Common! So we ended up staying for a few pops and it was good because we said farewell to our bus driver Kate. The buses don't cross the straight, they just have another diver pick you up on the other side. I will see Kate again because I am going back through the North Island, but Jolene was leaving from Queenstown, so we had one last hurrah with her. Turns out we had a great time and the guy with the guitar was hilarious! He was a pretty good singer too, but he had us in stitches all night. He was so funny, and he picked on everyone around, gawd it was great. We stayed out too late and then I felt like a bag of shit getting up for the ferry at 6:40am but someone once told me, “ You never reminisce about the nights you got a really good sleep.” That is true!