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Published: March 13th 2009
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18/2/09 = A chilled day with an Underground Elevator
Opened eyes at 7am, but room so cosy that closed them and went straight back to sleep again 😊 Opened them up for good at 8am, having nearly had a 12hr sleep. Brilliant! Could have drifted again, but any more sleep would be bordering on lazy! Stayed in bed dozing until 9 (dozing, not sleeping), then Deb came and delivered bad news to me. Could stay another night, but had to leave room by 10am until 1pm for cleaning. Not happy with that...planned to stay in bed and relax for at least another few hours. Couldn't even just move to sofa; had to vacate building. Went to plead with hostel man and actually didn't need any pleading. Took one look at me in my half asleep state and said could stay as long as didn't get in way. Got straight back into bed...just to get out of way though 😉. Chilled and wrote diary for a while, then cleaning man came round and asked him about a good run. Did want to be productive today. He recommended a 45min run round river = perfect so got changed and set off at
10:30. Lovely day outside - not too hot, but beautiful sunshine. Ran over bridge and along all river (got a little lost so had to double back in parts), then back across city bride and down other side of river. Lovely run, but definitely not 45mins. Not even a 45min walk! Added a bit extra on and was one of times could have run forever. Didn't though; had lots planned for day, so went back to hostel to get ready.
Got showered, washed clothes, had lunch, then set off for day at 1:15. Had come to Wanganui to go on river = best thing here, but didn't fancy a boat trip and Debs' shoulder still too bad for kayaking had planned, so decided to have a walk around town instead. Still a nice place without going on the river and water was dirty and churned up from bad weather anyway. Beautiful day with no clouds in sky at all and town quite busy with shoppers. Good day for relaxing and not busying for a change. Had a look round some shops (nearly bought some clothes, but managed to refrain), then wondered back across City Bridge, to Underground Elevator that
Elevator Tower
...with the awful grate steps! information lady had told us about. Elevator = only underground elevator in world and led up to a tower that could climb for good views of town. Had a really cool underground tunnel to get to elevator and elevator itself had been preserved in old style = small, wooden and v.70s. Don't actually know when it was built. Cost $2 to ride in elevator and opened out to a residential area and a school ground. Brilliant that kids with bikes got to ride in it for free. Had to climb some awful, metal, grate steps to get up tower and took a lot of deep breathing to get up. Hate see through steps! Manged it though and quite a good view from top...worth it I suppose! Was also another, older, stone tower could climb up that was taller than first. Whizzed up the 180steps of this one (because these were made of lovely, non-see through brick) and looked out from here. To be honest. Extra height didn't really make that much difference to view, so came back down soon after.
Meandered slowly back to park then (park had run through this morning) and lazed on grass, in sunshine. Had
A view from a tower
...after walking up awful, metal grate steps! a good hour of heat, then when started to get colder at around 4:30, headed back to hostel. Had already found out from info lady that library closed late at 8pm and was free internet, so quickly grabbed our things and off we went. Internet = perfect ending to a chilled day! Library only a few streets away. Found it quite easily and staff really friendly, but info lady had given out false info. Library closed at 6pm and was already 5:30. Never mind. Had 30mins on and decided to come back in morning before set off to Wellington. It's all about the free internet. Library opened at 9:30am, but library lady gave us a good tip about how busy it got and that queues started at 9:15. Queuing for library...what have I become!?! Made a plan to get there at 9:15 and beat out the competition...Deb has good nudging elbows!
Wondered back to hostel then with not much else to do. Fancied a salad for dinner, so went off to supermarket and bought one. Had chilli tuna and egg salad - all v.nice, but chilli tuna was v.chilli...nearly killed me off! Chatted to an older couple over dinner
Us and the view
(Camera must have been on a tilt). who were cycling round North Island. V.inspiring. Gave us loads of tips about cycling and just generally made me feel better to see other people doing it. Excited for cycling, but nervous too. Deb came off internet then and I went on for next 2hrs. If the chilli tuna doesn't kill me, the blogging will! Actually got really in mood for writing and could have stayed up writing in journal all night then, but everybody asleep in room, so gave up at 11:45 and turned light off.
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