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Published: February 19th 2006
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Shamrock Inn
Irish delight Hi again folks, as you can see from the location I’m safely back in Wellington at the moment taking stock of life and thinking over what to do next.
Moving on from Wanganui (we stayed another night in town in the same hostel as when we’d passed through previously), after an hour and a half we hit Palmerston North, one of the great splodging cities of New Zealand with very little in it whatsoever. To be fair to it, it has a pleasant air about it, there’s all the things that a city in New Zealand should have (Pak n Save supermarket, Sounds CD store, cash converters, a host of banks, small park…you get the picture), but with the bizarre situation where they seem not to cater for visitors at all. Well not in the backpacking sense - possibly as there is very little to do in the surrounding area. It only hosted two backpackers, both of which left a lot to be desired in décor or staff, so we consequently ended up (to my delight) staying above an Irish pub called The Shamrock - the benefits being a T.V, en suite and tea/coffee making facilities - luxury indeed. Checking
Palmy Delivers
Film in the evening, rose garden in the morning. Taken just before i leave for Welly, and Volvo watching. in our stuff, exploring what little there is there was the order of the day, so off we sped to Manawatu Gorge, which was genuinely impressive - the road weaves in and out of cliff faces over 8km often supported by nothing more than wooden trestles - a sign hopefully asks you to report any breakages, but I guess it would be too late if you found out! Very reminiscent of Cheddar Gorge in south England for those that know it. A short picnic stop and walk later we headed back to the bright lights taking in views of the southern hemispheres largest wind farm - joy of joys - Taraurua. It was pretty interesting to see and I was particularly surprised to find out that….hmm, I was trying to think of an interesting fact, but the truth is there were none of note - it was a lot of windmills. Finally on our return to Palmy we walked around the sites of the city (there is a park, with clock tower and a number of trees) and headed back to get ready for Palmy by night.
In the event Palmy by night doesn’t rank in the worlds great
Frank after the clean
shiney and clean, just look at him gleam. Hoovered inside, oooo he looked nice.....its just like byron or shelly spectacles so we headed to the picture and saw ‘River Queen’ which I recommend to anyone wanting an insight into the relationship between Maori and white settlers at the time of the New Zealand wars. As in the film often families and friends were split as some Maori welcomed the new settlers and the new industrialisation they bought, while others did not. In any case it was a good flick even if the photography was bizarre at times (while a tribe performed a Haka you get a great shot of the floor next to them).
Next morning I dropped Kristina with her host family from her exchange time here and headed off to Wellington - just me and Frank for the first time. Strange at first but, we kept each other company well. 2 hours driving later and I was back to find my place of residence empty, which in the end was good as it meant I walked to the top of the local hill (where you walked the dog Claire) and got some great views on a day of perfect weather, no cloud at all, but a nice cooling breeze. On my return the family (uncles, aunts
Volve Ocean Race
Off they go, a toddle around the harbour to keep the spectators happy, then off to the cook strait and the south seas....wizzy and cousins of Christmas period fame) had assembled and a evening was spent catching up on each others news.
Saturday was supposed to be a big day for Frank, washed all over, polished, waxed, hoovered, oiled and even the stereo fitted, we headed off to town. Sadly for Frank all this attention had an ulterior motive - his sale. Yep for various reasons (the cost of taking him over on the ferry, and the fact his MOT is coming up) I’m trying to sell him. Very sad stuff. So off I trotted to the car market, but call it fate if you will, it had recently come into non-existence on Saturdays when I went, so at present he is still with us looking clean and shiny and ace. As I write though a comprehensive tour of the Wellington second hand car dealers has been drawn up so soon enough it could be curtains for my long serving partner…boo.
On a more jovial footnote, and after the frustration of not finding the car market I went down to the water front and was treated to seeing the Volvo Ocean Race boats in port. Absolutely amazing to think they’re going
Volve Ocean Race 2
The Race Rumbles behind me all the way around the world (for more info I’m sure you can google Volvo Ocean Race), and often race very close together indeed. At the end of the leg from Melbourne to Wellington there was only 9 seconds separating the front two boats - after 5 days sailing that’s pretty unbelievable. Just as spectacular was watching the samba party that played along side where they were shown off. An just as good still was the beginning of the race again on Sunday when I watched them from the top of a hill in the suburbs setting off, and belting out of Wellington harbour, jiving and all sorts of things. As my uncle and myself watched proceedings unfold we were lucky enough to be given running commentary by a lively old seadog who had gone to the same place to watch and knew a lot about sailing. He also seemed intent on getting our opinion on the race (who was that that just tacked? Do they have spinnakers? Why are they jiving? What do you think of the chances of so and so?) which was a shame as we had little to offer him, other than remote comments and general agreement in what he said. He seemed happy enough with the company though so a good time was had by all. For the record the Kiwi skippered boat is in the overall lead, the Dutch boat won the leg into Wellington but knackered itself in the process and couldn’t leave on time with the others, the hardy British boat is in a respectable last, and the Disney funded boat ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ tacked and jived fastest out of the harbour. I supposed I should show an interest in sailing now Claire seems hooked.
Bye for now.
marc
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Graham
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I was in Auckland for the Americas cup and Sydney for some big boat race too and they are spectacular. I took my car on ferry as i judged that the time and effort it would have taken me to empty the car and sell it then fit all my stuff into backpack was worth the money. I hope you have been to Te Papa- best museum in the country. glad to see the Thailand hippy theme is continued.