Wellington Weekend
Wellington
You know you are onto a winner when your job provides you with flights and a hire car for a long weekend. 90 mins at 100KPH sees us rolling into Wellington and the night out begins after a fast check-in with the Ibis Hotel. Posh gaff for two blokes walking in wearing jeans, hoodies and in my case ‘Kicks’.
But first I’ll track back a little… about 12 hours.
‘MAC!’
‘Go away’
‘We need to send that email and get to the transport in half hour’
‘Fuck sakes’
We bimble into work and pull our admin out our arse and crack on with last minute rushing about before we get picked up. Still moaning about that fact that we have to go in the first place.
Christchurch Airport is still as unsatisfying as last time, free wifi though. BOOM! We are back in the game.
Prop-plane drags itself up to the North Island in just over an hour.
Hire car collection is painless and the motor is definitely not ‘blue’ as she said. I’d go for an almost grey attempt that is drizzled over the Corolla.
Grab scoff and head down Highway 1 towards our first accommodation in Lower Hutt. It is booked, paid for and sorted.
Checked in, utilised free wifi and got down to the town centre. Walked around for half hour trying to find some decent food. Walked back to accommodation and checked out. For anyone that reads this… Lower Hutt is a poorly designed pile of concrete filled turd. Avoid.
20 mins in the Corolla gets us into the heart of Wellington. The Ibis is sparkly and offers a pretty sweet room to get changed in and launch us into a night out.
After avoiding the advances of pills from a ‘couple’ which we had assessed to be looking for a 4way, we popped smoke and fast tracked our way into beers elsewhere. A 20 min hunt for a Kebab shop was frustrating. The thought that I was more hardcore than the guy making my kebab was a mistake.
‘Just add some more chillies bruv’
‘You have twice the amount that we normally serve on a hot one’
‘Just add the fucking chillies mate it’s all good.
It was fine whilst I was hoovering it up, then a misplaced lip movement dragged 3 phatt fire-truck red chillies across my face.
‘SHIT IT’
Yum
Local CCTV would have been watching a relatively sober Neil launching chillies at pace away from his early morning meal. I haven’t hit the booze much at all in the past couple weeks. Yeah I had a few that night, but no Hangover and a serious Starbucks craving led the way for a good Saturday.
A shift from the Ibis to Trinity Hotel for the second night was depressing. Rooms booked up and our new accommodation was pretty shocking and the Tele didn’t work. I don’t think that they liked us as we got sent to the room with the hole in the ceiling outside the door. Probably from a leak… yeah thanks. Fail.
Westpac Stadium
A decent pub was found on the way to the Stadium in the late afternoon. A day walking around pretty much the whole of Wellington and a drive around the surrounding area was finished with Bangers and Mash and Onion Gravy. Small victories and all that. 20 minutes later and we are sat in the Westpac Stadium watching the Hurricanes beat the Lions.
I’d never previously been to a rugby game, but have plenty of experience in live football. The difference is unreal, in regards to the crowd and atmosphere. The ground wasn’t very full to be honest and there was a slight drizzle in the air, but that was quiet in there. And is there a need to play a little Hurricanes Melody after a couple points are kicked every single time? The cheerleaders are not as good at the ones at Brighton BTW.
A couple beers in an Irish bar and some live music caused no dramas for the liver. We are off to Palmerston North in the morning… I’m driving.
We tried to spend as much time in Wellington, making most of a relatively decent city. The drive North was uneventful. New Zealand is boring. Unless you live in Wellington or Auckland, you are just wasting your time. People often say things like ‘When I retire, I’m moving to New Zealand or Australia’ Naahhh you are alright mate, I’d rather poke myself in the eye with my other eye. It is acceptable as a short break holiday destination at best, and only in one of the two aforementioned cities.
Palmerston North is our home for Sun/Mon before our week of work up this part of the country. It offers very little. Although the Thai food I had yesterday was pretty tasty. A chilled Queens Birthday Monday is time to chill, prep for the week and pick up a couple things from town.
I’ve got 4 hours of internet left to use so that will be well spent.
I’ll chat soon, hopefully.
Conn. ^_^