YHA room 604
Had 3 new roomies, a Welsh, an English and a German. getting along with roommates are truly a big part of bagpacking. I got so excited on exchanging experience and thoughts with all these fellow bagpackers.
Fred, the Welsh guy actually dropping by to attend a secondary school reunion. What's more interesting is, he actually graduated from high school since 1968, which is almost 40 years ago! i am beginning to wonder how would i looks like in 40 years.Scary, for sure.
Went back to Welsh pub after long chat with roommates. Was hoping to have a great night before i left Welly, but was constantly harassed by this drunk Caucasian. I know i got to leave when he start blurting racist statement, but before i left, the owner was kind enough to actually requested the guitarist to play a song for me.
" so kiss~~ me and smile for me, tell me that you'll wait for me, hold me like you'll never~~ let me go...i'm leaving ~~~on~~ the jet plane, don't know when i'll be back, oh babe, i hate to go..."
with hugs and songs, i left the pub.
18/11/05 1am
17/11/05 7pm
Cha Restaurant
came back from Te papa, the national museum. i must admit that it is quite impressive, even for me who only have a small fraction of interest on NZ historical past.
Friends were bringing me around the whole day, and i managed to snap a few shot of " i've been here". The parliament building beehive is equally conventional to our old parliament house (maybe the building doesnt leaked like ours, that's why it does attract my attention)
Walked around rose garden. Roses were pretty colourful, but doent really impressed we guys. But what attract our attention was, 2 ducks were busy pecking one another in order to win the heart of the female duck. The winner was mating on the spot, but the loser was pretty sly, it actually launched an attack while the male was having fun. Eventually their are like having a orgy party right in front of us.
Thirsty. My goodness, how many kilo's of MSG did they put into my noodle? no wonder the america have the Chinese Restaurant Syndrome back in the 50's. (seriously, there is such thing)
17/11/05 11am - 11pm
Lambton Quey, Courtney Place, Botanical Garden, Cuba Street, Te Papa
Met up with my friend and had a day tour around welly town area. pictures speak louder than words.
purple rose at the botanical garden
all i know is that it is a struture symbolizing something that is culturally significant to Maori and looks darn cool
Te Papa, NZ National Museum
Beehive, NZ parliment building
Moa, an extinct bird that is MUCH bigger tha ostrich. and yes, NZ native birds have no wings, or too small to call it a wing.
a shopping complex that looks antique n cool but has nothing to shop for
somehow this coffee looks so great on picture, but it taste really ordinary. ( my wallpaper for almsot half a year :) )
that's what i am looking at while i am enjoying the coffee above. the green lanes are the bus lane, n those cables are the electrical cable that keeps all the bus running
My defination of a successful big city - put random arts across the city with hardly any citizen appreciate it and yet manage to amaze stupid tourist like me and shot a few photoes on it.
if u live in this city n yet not knowing how to enjoy all the wonderful open cafe cafe during the day, you are definately an idiot.
No i am not swearing at you, read the fine print
This is the cool cafe, Smith's Cafe located inside that cool looking shopping complex. The lift goes up to offices
too poor to buy glass window :)
Welly is so cool tat even the dogs have their own cellphone17/11/05 8am
YHA Wellington
Both my legs are aching thanks to the great walk i had yesterday. And surprisingly my face was burned quite badly by the lovely UV ( why do our body need this particular wavelength of light to produce vitamin while it is THIS bloody UV that can cause skin cancer??!! n Malaysian who expose to sun ALL the time hardly have any risk for skin cancer while the Kiwi have t highest rate of Melanoma in t world.Strange strange world...)
Went out last night and managed to explore 2 pubs that are pretty interesting, at least to me. The first bistro/restaurant - Sandwiches has their weekly Jazz night performance, so i decided to pay it a visit. Bought a glass of overprice Merlot, only to realise that i was late for the performance. The vocalist, a young and vibrant guy singing their last song 'Out of Tune' as i was trying to figure out what makes that Merlot that expesnive. Its a great piece of music though, composed by the same composer of The Girl from Ipanema.
my seat was barely warmed up by me when the performance ended. I do not wish myself to be looking like a pathetic loser sitting next to the bar table drinking lonely wine, so I walked to another pub for second round. I ended up walked into a Welsh pub name Welsh Dragon. If you have seen the Welsh national flag, you would probably understand why the pub's name is dragon
unsurprisingly, the pub is owned by Welsh,visits by Welsh,decorated with Welsh national flags and items, and of course, selling Welsh beer.And unsurprisingly, i am the only yellow pigmented homo Sapien in this pub. But SURPRISINGLY, this pub located at the divider between a busy 4 lanes street. the reason of this interesting location is because this pub was formally known as the Public Toilet! dont ask me why and how, i have absolutely no clue on how can a public toilet could ended up as a pub. And the interior of the building looks absolutely nothing like a toilet.
the origin of this building is definitely interesting,but what caaught my eyes yesterday night was not a wrongly placed toilet bowl, but an eccentric pianist that played ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC piano along with his wonderful voice. He is known as Mark @ Mr. B @ Mr. Friday. He didnt explain where did he get the nick, but he should be called as Mr. A as his piano skills are definitely AAA class.
Mr. B is trully an entertainer. His whole body moved along with the music, and he tapped his left foot loudly and produced a perfect instrumental like tune to accompany the piano tune. and MArk could almost played all the song requested by the customer (well, there's only 6 of us..)
then the owner of the pub came over and have a small talk with me. HE requested Mark to play a Malaysian song to welcome me. Obviously he struggled to do that, but he played along by singing a Fiji song. All of us recoqnised the song in a very short period, so the owner make Him to sing Macarena in Malay. Mark gave up and sang it in English,but it is still amazing that he can actually played such a fast tune song on piano. His fast moving finger actually made me felt a little bit dizzy...
I ended up in that pub for almost 2hours, singing almost all the song along with everyone in the pub, and it feels wonderful, really really wonderful...i dont think i would be envying the pub in Alley Mcbeal anymore.
7.53pm 16/11/05
Room 604 YHA, Wellington
I could barely walk now. Hopefully after having enough sleep, i can later go out for night scouting. Overall, it was quite an amazing day, knowing the fact that i went through all kind of pain through out the walk around Wellington. Just as I was overjoyed with the fact tha i finally escape the jungle and get back into civilization, I was kicked staright down into a deep valley by realising that i had been walking on the wrong path from the very beginning.
Anyway, althought i got up to the wrong hill, i still manage to conquer one of the peak around Wellington city. I was quite proud when i was standing next to the unknown statue that standing tally on the peak. But as the wind getting stronger, i started to become chicken and afraid of falling down from the tiny peak area.
Unknown statue on the peak of the unknown hill that i conquered
the bushes that protecting the statue. I had to suffer the iche caused by the weed in order to stand next to the statue
view from the peaki only managed to snap a few photo from the top with one hand holding hard on the statue. After standing on top for merely a minute or so, i cowardly crawl down to the flat land. sigh, how useles of me :)
after conquering the peak, i am beginning to feel bored and wish to end this endless walking. But it only happened after another few hours of endless walk. Just as i thought that i might die of dehydration, i vaguely see an old man walking into a shabby building. Although i prefer to see a Hobbit rather than an old man, but i am still joyfully run towards the buidling. Without realising it, i was actually back to the civilization and that shabby building was build next to the entrance of this jungle. I knocked on the door and asked for water, and the old man was very friendly and guide me to the kitchen. After galloped litres of water and filled up all my water bottle, i take a glance at the building. It is club house for some community bagpipe association. The old man was making arrangement for the performance tonight and he invited me to come over again tonight. I certainly love to come over, but i know there is no way for me to climb all those mountain again just to see a performance.
After recharging myself, i continue my way to get back into the city centre. Along the way, i walked passed a golf course, a garden, another jungle before ended up in Victoria University. THEN only i realised that the walkway i chose is no way near Victoria University. Eventaully, i gave up looking for a way back to the YHA. Instead, i took a bus home.
saw the lonely planet guide for New Zealand lying on the bed next to mine again. Is there anyone that did not use this book for guidance besides me bagpacking New Zealand?!!
6.53pm 16/11/05
Asian Kitchen, Corner of Cuba Street
Felt cheated even though it was me myself who made the mistake...I got a bit hungry and as I was hunting for the best bargain in town,I saw this restaurant that pasted their Menu on their glassy door. One of the item on the menu caught my eye - 'Nasi Goreng for $7.95'. sound pretty good for a dinner in Wellington. So i walked in and tried and make an order. But i was offered another set of Menu.
I asked the waitress for the menu that i saw, and i was told that it was the LUNCH Menu! Damn it~ now i have to order the cheapest food on the menu - Green Curry for $14~ !@$#@!$....i swear to myself that i'm gonna tear this restaurant down if the Green curry not worth that money...
i hate to admit it, but turn out that the Green Curry is pretty impressive. The spiciness of the curry was altered to suit the Kiwi taste, but i like it that way. The mildness allowed to taste the sweetness of other ingredient in it and yet it doesnt lose its curry flavour. But if i was given a choice, i will still choose to go Sampan and pay $6 for a bowl a noodle soup with complimentary chicken bone :)
4.30pm 16/11/05
Oriental Bay, wellington
It took me bloody 5 hours (!!) to reach this small little beach. but instead of walking all the way to oriental bay, i chose to take a bus (after 4 hours and 40minutes of walking). Why? because i took the wrong path from the very BEGINNING!!!
instead of walking along the 'Southern Walkway', i followed another walkway call 'city to sea walkway', and i only realised it after almost 5 hours of walking! the funny thing is, instead of climbing up Mount Victoria, i ended up in University of Victoria. this is stupid......
university of victorianow i start to wonder which peak that i had actually got up to. there is this funny looking statue on top of the peak,which i thought its representing Victoria! i must admit that it was fun though, and i did get to Oriental Bay eventually anyway.
and i thought this is how the legendary Victoria looks like..i was quite disappointed with the fact that there is nobody in this beach. This is kind a small for a beach but there should be people crazy enough to come over and have a swim.
the only creature in this beachMy leg is kind of numb now after playing with the cold sea water. Also, the wind is getting really strong now and the sand is hitting me REAL hard now....better run quick...
10.35 AM - 130PM 16/11/05
Snapshot along the walkway
there's all these sign around the city to guide you throughout the walkway. If you look carefully, this signboard is guiding me to another walkway and i didnt realise it until the very end of my adventure!!
its amazing how the mountain view change so rapidly along the way. this slightly bald mountain view is quite common
there's gate around to prevent car ( and perhaps possums?) from getting access into certain area, and the tourism board was kind enough to build a stairs like structure for explorer to go ahead...thoughtful..
this is so mild seven's advertisement right?
looks like a huge-ass whale swimming in the air...
i stood there for quite a while when i snapping this shot.....green plus blue just so soothing...
seaside view
geographic pole on a not so high hill...
i had almost 20 shots that is identical to this.....looking at the sea beyond the horizon is just so spectacular....damn...wish i could stay there forever
a small island not far away for shore
quite a number of housing area build around this bay...lucky bastard...
apparently this area filled with poison that is mean to kill all the possum...possum is a pest here n yet its a protective species in OZ....how ironic...
the bus here are all cabled....i kinda like it...
