The hostel we stayed at the first two nights we were in town was pretty crappy. First, most of the people staying at the hostel didn't clean up after themselves. So, there were dirty dishes everywhere in the kitchen & hardly ever any clean mugs or glasses to use. We had to get one of the many dirty cups from the countertops & wash them in order to drink anything. Oh, and the couches in the lounge area were completely disgusting---all of the lining just hanging off with the inside of the couches exposed. To make the hostel experience even better, it was Easter weekend...and our hostel was apparently very kid-friendly. Yeahhh...if you know me well at all, you can imagine how ecstatic I was to have noisey kids running around the hostel. At one point, Sontsa & I were in the common showers/sinks area and I said, "Man, what is that smell?" Sontsa pointed to a trash can nearby and stated, "It's the diaper." My immediate response was, "I'm sorry...did you just say diaper? I'm staying in a hostel with DIAPERS in the trash cans?! Oh no no." Haha. So, needless to say, we tried not to spend too much time at the hostel.
During some of the bad weather times, we of course took advantage of the free wifi at McDonalds & sent out some more couchsurfing messages (and perhaps checked our facebooks). When we used up our allotted data limit on the McDonalds network, we moved on to another spot that we'd heard had free wifi. Now this is where it gets pathetic..haha. The other free wifi was at the harbour, which wouldn't have been a problem except that it was REALLY windy & cold outside at that point. So, we found a spot underneath the deck at the harbour that looked like a spot a homeless person may have chosen , away from the wind. We must have looked slightly amusing because a group of people walked nearby, saw us, pointed, laughed, talked, then took our picture! Haha...we were apparently one of the tourist attractions in Wellington. I promise we did more in Welly than stalk out free wifi though. We actually spent the rest of the afternoon in the huge Te Papa Museum looking at the exhibits.
Our last day in town was by far the best, partly because we had our first couchsurfing experience! A guy named Ricky had answered one of our couchsurfing requests. So, Sontsa & I checked out of our dreadful diaper-filled hostel, walked down the road, and Ricky & one of his flatmates Carlos came and picked Sontsa & I up with all of our bags in front of the McDonalds. Ricky had actually invited us to go fishing with them ealier that morning, but we had kindly declined his thoughtful offer since fishing in the rain wasn't exactly our thing =) After they picked us up, the four of us headed to their flat about 10 minutes drive outside of the town center. It was a sweet house up on a hill with a great view. We chilled there for a bit, had some warm tea & chatted. Since Ricky had to go to work from 2:00 to 10:00 pm that day, he offered to give Sontsa & I a ride back into town to do some sightseeing. He first stopped off at a place called Victoria Lookout for us though, where we were able to get a fantastic view of the city & take some pictures. Then, we made a quick trip to the local organic supermarket so Ricky could buy some food for his work. He is originally from Bali, Indonesia but has been living in NZ the past 5 years working as a chef. After the short grocery trip, he dropped us off at the town center & gave us some pointers on what to see and where to go. Oh, and since he said we'd probably get back to the flat before he did, he gave us his house key! That's right...I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again: New Zealanders are different in a very wonderful way.
Sontsa & I spent our afternoon doing some proper sightseeing---rode the cable car, walked around the botanical gardens, checked out the parliament building, and explored the city a bit. Oh, we also went shoe shopping for Sontsa to get some PROPER walking shoes. You see, she came to NZ with NO warm clothes, NO jeans, and NO walking shoes. Carl & Megan from Napier had luckily given her some of their old hoodies, but the only shoes she has been wearing for the past 3 months have been flip-flops and girly slip-on shoes. Since a huge part of experiencing NZ, especially in the south island, is hiking, trekking, and exploring the amazing scenery, we went into the shoe store that Ricky suggested. I proceeded to walk toward the back of the shop where the walking shoes were & after a few moments realized that Sontsa was not with me. I found her near the front of the store trying on HIGH HEELS! Gotta love her. After some convincing, I eventually got her to try on REAL shoes & she successfully found a pair for $19.99.
We then met up with Rachel & Vinny at a cool little place called Enigma to grab some hot chocolate. The four of us had such a good time!! Before we knew it, we had been there for over 3 hours chatting and laughing. It was sooo nice to unexpectantly see them in Wellington & hopefully we'll all run into each other again in the south island. Since it was close to the time that Ricky was scheduled to get off of work, Sontsa & I just decided to wait for him instead of going back to the flat right away. So, Ricky came & picked us up and we all went out to play some pool. Sontsa & I played on a team against Ricky for the second game, and we all made a bet that the loser(s) had to crawl underneath the pool table from one side to the other. Yeahh..Sontsa & I lost (go figure), and did some lovely army crawling underneath the table. After we left there, we all went to bar that had a sweet fireplace in it & we stayed there chatting for a while. A small group of local kiwis in their mid-twenties (two girls & a guy) also came over to talk with us during the evening, which turned out to be really amusing at times. Jacqueline, one of the girls, should be a character on that stupid American show Jersey Shore haha.
After the bar, we went back to Ricky's and the three of us stayed up ridiculously late drinking a couple glasses of wine, chatting, looking at pictures of mine & Sontsa's trip, and singing songs while Ricky played the guitar. Such a fun night & a wonderful first couchsurfing experience! It would have been great if we could have stayed longer, but Sontsa & I had to catch our ferry to the south island the next morning. Ricky drove us to the ferry terminal & stayed with us a bit before heading out. Now, for those of you who think Sontsa & I are crazy for crashing on the couches of people we don't know, let me ease your mind a bit. We only send messages to people that other couchsurfers have previously stayed with & have left good reviews concerning their stays. Ricky had over 60 positive reviews from other backpackers who had stayed with him before, and for good reason. So please don't worry; we will only stay with people who we feel completely secure about. =) We actually already have couches to stay on for our trips to Queenstown, Invercargill & Dunedin as well!
Cheers,
Ash
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