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My New Zealand trip inspired 28 pages of journal and hundreds of photos. I had to select among the photos. The last shall be first on this blogsite, so to follow my progress day by day go to number 1 in the New Zealand theme.. Each text page is followed by a photo page.

(continued)   The shops on Wellington’s main street are aimed towards the well-heeled shopper, predominating in brands like Vuitton and Prada. I am utterly allergic to such things, considering them a waste of money. Their goods are well made but so are a lot of cheaper things. In my opinion it is the name that is paid for, and their style is not always elegant.  I saw an Asian woman in a square in New Zealand with a Prada bag that was very plain, almost ugly in my opinion but with the name prominently displayed. If not for my diabetes I would have been more likely to enter one of the many shops selling gourmet food; chocolates, jams, many types of honey.

 

I noticed that there a many more narrow focus specialty shops in New Zealand than I am used to in Australia. One I liked was Mapworld in Christchurch which sells maps of everywhere.

 

Desultorily I strolled into Borders, browsing the New Zealand section first but did not see anything I desired there. On a whim I looked through the Science Fiction section for Simon Haynes’ books. Simon is an Australian who writes really funny SF starring an incompetent space pilot called Hal Spacejock. He is also a programme writer who gives away free and useful software from his website, including software for writers. http://www.spacejock.com.au/ They had his work and I spotted one I had not yet read. I reached for my wallet.

 

Boat from boat

 

 

I was at the Bluebridge terminal early and began to read Hal Spacejock, Second Course. Remembering the problem with getting a comfortable seat on the Interislander boat I made sure I was near the head of the boarding queue. I needn’t have bothered, there are plenty of reclining seats on the Bluebridge ferries.

 

There is a dining room with unpretentious wholesome meals and friendly staff, a bar, and a big outdoor viewing area. As I said, there are plenty of armchairs to slump in or watch the in-voyage movies if preferred. The day was fine and I got much better photos but I spent an hour or two asleep in my comfortable chair. On this voyage I made no people contact. It must have been my mood.

 

I checked in to Picton Lodge again and went back to the Dog and Frog.

 

Rugged eastern entrance, Queen Charlotte Sound

 

Day twelve

 

I rose on time and left Picton Lodge to walk the short distance to the Railway Station where I was greeted loudly by my supporters from the day before. The train was not to leave till 1.00 so I was told to be back by 12.30. The day was sunny and beautiful so I enjoyed taking photos by the water again. At my current walking pace I had no time to go on any tracks so it was the waterfront and town again. I feel quite at home in Picton now.

 

I set my alarm for 12.00 and when it rang I returned to the station. The lovely staff lady spotted me after I had been to the toilet and said, ‘Hugh! What are you doing here?’ With misgivings I replied, ‘Waiting for the train.’ She said, ‘It’s gone!’ It was well after 1.00 and my bags were on the way to Christchurch. Two others had missed the train too. Daylight saving had finished and most people’s clocks were reset by an hour. One of the phone companies had changed the time on phones all over the country without a warning notice and people all over New Zealand were missing buses, trains and boats.

 

New information: Daylight savings had not finished so what went wrong for all those people? Did the phone company make a bad mistake? Yes they did, daylight saving was extended by four weeks a couple of years ago and the date for putting clocks forward in 2007 was the date I was to take that train journey.

 

Ruefully laughing and joking with my mate about my luck I rebooked for the next day. She phoned Christchurch and arranged for my bags to be held for me. My medicines were on that train and when I booked back in to Picton Lodge I decided to take it easy and slept for most of the afternoon. Of course being a little unhappy had nothing to do with it, eh?

 

I had Haggis for dinner at ‘The Flying Haggis’. Lacking the old ingredient of sheep’s pluck or stomach it was a very tasty savoury mince with mashed potatoes on top, filling and satisfying. Feeling a lot happier I went back to the hostel and got online to write to Sue and apologise for forgetting her birthday. I brought this journal up to date and went to bed. (To be continued)

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 10:13 am and is filed under New Zealand, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.