Bye Bye North Island...Hello South Island!

---

21/2/09 = A Cuban Carnival in Wellington

Another good sleep - getting the hang of this now - and only woke up at 7:15 because wanted to go for a run. Actually didn’t want to go for a run at all when opened eyes and could think of nothing worse than leaving lovely warm bed to run in cold, cold weather, but made myself anyway. Got dressed and off I went at 7:30. Ran along waterfront and couldn’t believe how windy it was. Had to run some of it totally leaning forward just so I could move…was even worse when turned a corner into more open space. Can’t say I enjoyed it really; at least not first half. Took 30mins before finally got my stride, but was too late by then, only had 40mins, then had to start getting ready for busy day ahead! Today = Annual Cuban Carnival in Wellington and should be a really good day, if not just a huge street party. Roads closed and opening parade at 11am, so ran back to hostel, showered and changed, then headed onto Courtney Place at 10:45, ready to catch it all. Surprised to see when we got there that not many people around; not on Courtney Place or Cuba Street = 2 main streets of festival. Things for festival not even all up yet and could see floats still being constructed…got the feeling lady from hostel had given us wrong info! Wondered around it all anyway and happy to see lots of little stalls, including lots of jewelry stalls. Although probably not a good thing; no spare money for jewelry…cannot afford jewelry…do not buy jewelry! Lucky that Dave and Bobby were with us; stopped me looking.

Soon realised that lady at hostel had been entirely wrong. No opening ceremony and 11am = v.early to come! Dave was especially devastated as took a lot of effort for him to get out of bed before midday; something he rarely does. Even we could have had more sleep. Never mind, nice sunny day and still good to wonder round. Noticed lots of people gathered around one particular street, so edged to front of crowd (are some advantages to being small) and saw was a lady contortionist- called Pinky - about to perform. Already seen one in Auckland, but this lady was different and looked good, so found a seat on floor (a.k.a concrete) and got ready to watch. She was absolutely amazing and way better than the first lady we had seen. Did some really good tricks, including maneuvering her body through a hula hoop about the size of an average pizza I eat. She fit this hoop over her head and down, over her body while she was in the spilts and even over her body via her bum! Brilliant! And she even hoola hooped with 50 hoops at once…mind boggling how she does it. Pinky was a really good entertainer and got a really cute kid out of crowd to hula hoop too. Don’t know if it was a set up, but that little kid (I’d say around 3/4yrs old) was one of best hula hoopers I have ever seen and so unbelievably cute. Bless her! Ended with the usual, squash my body into a small box trick and all show was really good! Gave a small donation (v.small 😞), then decided to go for a drink in sunshine. Found a nice beer garden and got an expensive but v.tasty lager. Chatted and drank, then decided to go back to hostel to eat and drink…lot cheaper than festival. Then, would come back later to see the real parade.

Didn’t work out like that. Went back to hostel and decided it was way too nice a day to be stuck inside at 1pm and miss build up of festival, so would have to just spend more money and drink in pubs. Headed back to Cuba Street on that note!Checked out a few food stalls because were all hungry and I ended up getting nice chicken curry…or so I thought. Started tucking into him and discovered was big chunks of chicken on bone. Don’t like chicken on the bone at best of times, but covered in curry sauce that stains your fingers…no thanks. Did what I could, but basically ate sauce and rice. Bad choice! Moved on then and inched v.slowly through a v.compact and busy crowd to a even more busy pub on the main street. Managed to squeeze our way through and get drinks and even more luckily, managed to get a seat outside on balcony, in lovely sunshine. Chatted and drank there for a few hours and was a really good feeling around from festival. Could look down below and see how busy streets had got. Such a nice day. After few hours, wriggled way back out of pub and back to hostel…took 20mins to do a 5min journey, but all adds to feel of day. Back at hostel, headed over to supermarket to get food for dinner and some drinks. Didn’t sell vodka 😞 and as Deb headed towards wine, I took a definite turn towards beer. Not much of a lager drinker, but as this trip has proved, I’m even less of a wine drinker…although not sure goon is technically classed as wine?! Anyway, wine is out and beer is in! Got more than needed, then went back to hostel to make another nutritious meal of beans on toast!

Ate straight away when got back and Irish guys met briefly night before came over for a chat. All had some drinks and chatted then. Chatted for hours, then played cards - again, the I Love Dogs cards went down v.well…even spent some time allocating dogs to each of us as lookalikes! Card games always good, drinking card games never end up good for me. Before knew what had happened, had drunk my 6 cans and were all late for festival. Main parade at 9pm and was whole point of day. Were supposed to leave at 8:15 to get a good spot, but now was 9:15 and already missed opening. Couldn’t believe had been so stupid…had been up since crack of dawn and been to carnival twice already…now, when main thing was on…we were all sitting around playing cards and missing it! Typical! Was heaving when we got there and no way we were going to get a good spot. Lads gave up as soon as they saw it. Me and Deb persevered…really wanted to see parade. Tried to nestle and nudge way to front, but really didn’t work. When did find a tiny gap 3 rows back, a lady behind us got v.mad and not so politely told us we had better budge because she had arrived 45mins ago to get that spot. Not going to argue…she was right. Moved away and tried to find somewhere else, but just didn’t happen. Curse my wretched height…could barely see anything. Best thing I could see was tops of peoples’ heads! Was like torment to know something really good was happening right in front of me, but just couldn’t quite see it…awful! Tried my best for 20mins on my tip toes, but then just got too frustrated and couldn’t stand to be there ‘nearly’ seeing everything. Deb was o.k., so left her to it and I pushed through crowd to try and get to pub where guys were. Took a lot of pushing and got a lot of ‘unfriendly’ looks, but managed to get into pub and find guys. Got another drink (which definitely didn’t need) and waited outside, Could actually see parade better from there and was a much better atmosphere. Only lasted another 15mins, then Deb came through. Drank, laughed, Deb did the Highland fling with a random guy and Bobby (no idea why…just seemed right at the time I guess) and spent the next few hours doing just that.

Went to a few more bars in the meantime and got even more drinks…think everyone can see where this one is going…wish I could have seen it at the time! Spent lots and lots of money on vodka and spent lots and lots of time dancing and just generally looking/acting daft! Dave declared my type of dancing as ‘The Sway’ and apparently I did that for rest of night. Not sure if I always dance ‘the sway’, or that was just a result of all alcohol…probably a combination of both me thinks! Left pubs at 1am and came out into street full of people just as drunk as us…the true picture of a carnival! Headed towards an R&B club and lost Dave along the way…fair to say we were all a bit passed the tipsy mark! Met Irish guy on way and in we went. Turned out to be quite rubbish, so me and Deb left in search of food after 10mins. Both us starving (result of alcohol) and ploughed through streets looking for nearest take away shop could find. Wish had never found one. Can’t believe what happened next! Ended up buying and gobbling down a donner kebab…urgh! A donner kebab! And Deb got a donner burger! Gobbled them straight down with loads of chips too. Alcohol is nasty, nasty stuff! Nobody even knows what’s in donner meat!!!!! Walked back to hostel full bellied and quite happy, then crashed into bed. I fell asleep instantly while Deb went to phone her Mum…crazy girl. I could barely string sentences together, let alone speak to my Mum. No offense Mum! Closed eyes and last thought before drifted off…please don’t have hangover tomorrow!



22/2/09 = Alcohol + me = Disaster 😞

Oh no...woke up every hour on the hour throughout all of the night. Alcohol was not a good decision and donner kebab even worse! Woke up properly at 8am, but didn't get out of bed until 9am. Really needed to stay in bed as long as possible, but checkout = 10am, so couldn't wait any longer. Sat up at 10am praying for no hangover, but must not have been praying hard enough. Felt rubbish! Absolutely rubbish! Crawled off to shower in hopes that would wash away all badness, but after 15minutes doubled over under hot water, still didn't feel any better. Not sick, but not better. Brushed teeth to try and brush away badness, but it worked only for 5mins and then it came back. Oh no...it was going to be one of those days...those awful, awful days. Went back to room to pack up and slumped on floor as tried to squash everything uselessly into bag. Worst packing ever done and bag barely closed…had to extend all straps to max to make it shut. Trundled off downstairs then to check out with cock-eyed bag. No life in me at all. Found reading room and collapsed flat out on sofa. Needed to sleep…needed to sleep it off. How can it be possible to feel this bad after only drinking good things? Deliberately didn’t drink any wine or any bad shots…maybe I have some kind of kidney or liver problem? Maybe I’m allergic to alcohol? Whatever it is…fed up of feeling like this after drinking…got to figure something out. Perhaps need to concentrate on quantities a little more, rather than qualities of drinks!?!

Collapsed in reading room half dead for quite a while before Deb skipped in as fresh as a daisy! Unbelievable! How does she do it!?! Chatted for a while (well as much as I could manage), then friend from home rang as planned. Chatted to Gem and Kirst for nearly an hour and was really nice to catch up on things from home. Would have been even nicer if I wasn’t feeling so rubbish though! Relayed everything could remember on to Deb, then she went into town while I had a little snooze; were both just waiting for ferry at 1pm to take us over to South Island. Oh yes…another day of traveling while feeling rubbish…that must be my thing! Tried to sleep, but just couldn’t. Tried to force in some toast, but again, just couldn’t. Only thing could manage was to lay still, close eyes and wish it was tomorrow already. Didn’t last long anyway, because Deb came back after just 30mins. Turns out, we needed to leave an hour earlier than planned to get to ferry, so actually had to rush to get out on time. Rushing not exactly my style in the current state! To make it all worse, car was a 15min walk away, with backpacks on, in the freezing cold wind…gutted!

Moving was painful…actually painful. 20kg bag teamed with an unbelievably strong wind made for a v.unpleasant walk. Wind was so strong that it blew my skirt clean up and everyone behind me got a full view of bum…actual bum! Made my efforts to hold it down, but after 5mins, felt so sick and rubbish, no longer cared if whole world could see my bum, did remaining 10mins with skirt flapping up around waist! Pushed through gale leaning forward and concentrating on not being sick. Then got to car and dumped bags in, holding onto door so that it didn’t blow open onto wall. It really was some of strongest wind ever walked in. All had to do was find our way to ferry terminal then - needless to say that Deb was driving - but even that turned out to be a nightmare. One way streets really do make life unnecessarily difficult! Drove round the same streets a few times, then finally found our exit for ferry just in time. Was all v.civilised and joined back of queue of vehicles. Would have been excited on a normal day, but could only think about feeling better at the present time.

Gave tickets over and sat in queue for a few minutes, then were straight onto boat. Parked car and climbed upstairs. Really nice ferry with comfy sofas, big screen TV’s and plenty of space out on deck or inside. Saw there would be movies on, so got a good spot in front of TV. Don’t know why…knew I would be asleep within minutes…that was the plan anyway. Closed my eyes, but the plan didn’t work. Before ferry even started moving, I started to feel really sick…like really sick! Ran off to bathroom and sure enough…I was sick. The wretched half slice of toast had forced in earlier came straight back up…knew I shouldn’t have eaten it! Couldn’t believe it though…how can this possibly be happening to me again! Really am alcohol intolerable! One good thing about it all though, felt instantly better after got rid of the toast! Dusted myself off, grabbed a sick bag on way out (you can never be too careful) and slumped back in front of TV again. This time, fell asleep within 5minutes. Next time opened my eyes 2 hours had passed and the North Island was just a speck on the horizon. Hello South Island! Good sleep and felt much better, but bit disappointed that missed nearly all ride. So many people had said how good a crossing it was and how amazing views were; teetered off outside to see if had missed everything. Hadn’t. Were sailing through and right next to giant clumps of land = South Island. Could no longer see North Island, but watching ferry navigate through huge mounds of Earth on all sides was quite amazing. Masses of land formations all around us and we were sailing right through it. Awesome. Would have stayed out there for all remaining journey, but wind was so strong that no one stayed outside. All had to settle for bobbing in and out at regular intervals. Was so strong, it actually blew me into bars at side of boat and were both worried about holding onto cameras when took pictures.

30mins later and ferry pulled into Picton. Got into car, drove off ferry and we were in South Island. V.excited…especially now starting to feel better. Headed off towards Nelson and realized petrol was so low it was actually flashing at us. Had to pull into next town (Blenheim) to fill up. Wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Neither of us had any money and for some reason, cards still not working in shops or petrol stations. Had to hunt round for a ‘hole in the wall’ and when did finally find one, it was ‘Out of Order’ = typical! Did eventually find one, paid for petrol and also bought food. 5pm at this point and tummy aching from hunger, not sickliness. Got a sandwich and crisps and ate them on remaining journey to Nelson. Went down v.well. Didn’t take much longer to get to Nelson and found hostel (Accents on the Park) after not too much driving around. Was a really nice place and again like a B&B; cosy and comforting. Checked in with a really friendly owner, found our room and was so tired, got into bed, wrote for a while, but then fell asleep just after 8pm. Awesome 😊. Hope feel fully better in morning!

---

Photos

The Carnival begins
Dave ruining the shot!

Just not right
A hula hoop with a diameter the size of a 10p coin and she is wriggling it down her entire body. One word...how?

A funny demo
Ring now going over bum.

Sheer pain
Just a warm up for her! Ha!

2inch ring over your head..
...Casual...well I suppose we can all do that!?!

More Hula hoops than can count
I struggle even with 1!

Roses before we went out
Funny Irish guys. V.nice roses though.