Current Location: Levin, Aotearoa
Waiting for the shortest day of the year to pass me by has given me a chance to hang out in and around Wellington a lot more than I had expected, which is turning out to be a good thing. I’m liking Wellington as a city, not as much as I liked Christchurch, as it does have a lot to offer. It’s museum has a colossal squid on display which I got to check out, Shaun would have been impressed.
I got to go tramping this weekend with Sharon, Ellen, Bryan, and Cedric. A motley menagerie traipsing through the mountains of the Rimutaka. This being the hill I skipped by catching a ride with Alex back in January. We hiked in 4 liters of wine along with some other food and a deck of cards and had a grand time in the hut. We had a lot of fun playing and drinking in the middle of the woods, and the hiking was fun too. A little wet but not as bad as the Milford track although the track was a little more vertical than the Milford. I think I won the prize for most slips, clay when wet gets pretty slippery.
I’m also sort of wwoofing in Levin with a co-worker of Sharons who mentioned to her that they had some work around the house that needed doing and did they know of anyone. As it turns out I’m left to my own devices and come up with my own chores around the house which is a lot different than usuall. Most of the time the people I’m working with have a specific list of things needing to get done. I probably wouldn’t have stopped in Levin had it not been for Ken and Lorainne, it’s a town thats major feature that I can figure out is it’s in the middle of everywhere. It has a bustling feel to it but not a whole lot going for it.
As Branden commented on my use of strange words theres actually a little more that I’ve picked up in my time here. Although I blame the use of the word posh on hanging out with a bunch of pom’s, it’s not normally in the vocabulary. A kiwi-ism that I’ve been heard using is “sweet as…” I’m sure you can imagine what I thought people were saying the first few times I heard that which caused me a little consternation. But since then I’ve found it used in a lot of different ways such as “Heavy as, Cold as.” So it basically translates to “Cold as [can be], Sweet as [can be]” The other saying I’ve picked up is saying “cheers” instead of “thanks.” I’m not sure how I feel about that one but it feels more sincere than a simple thanks.
As a side note some cousins of mine have set off on a coast to coast ride, good luck to Reuben & Teresa.
I’ve finally got around to sorting through a months worth of pictures, something I hope to not have to put off again as it takes so long to sort through that many pictures. This lot of pictures goes all the way back to doing the Abel-Tasman on through to getting back to Wellington.