Friday, March 20, 2020

New Zealand 20/20 trip: Day 12 Walking round Wellington



By the numbers
13.91 kms
18,164 steps

The day started off early again as I was up well before my alarm went off as I wanted to get some food and then head off to the Weta Cave, which is basically a studio that made Lord Of the Rings and The Hobbit amongst a few other movies. I first had to catch the bus and as it turned out I was waiting at the wrong part of the bus stop and the one I wanted to catch had a shortened service due to the fact there was something called a driver shortage. I sorted out my confusion over the Google Map and caught a different bus with two minutes to spare. I had a snapper card now so I don’t need to handle money, I tried scanning the card in the wrong thing, which was his till. Think he was amused. I looked at my phone to see the route we would take and it didn’t go all the way to the Weta Cave in Miramar. It went along the water front and when we reached a point, I jumped off, because reasons.

I jumped off as I had come across a site that I had not seen since my nephew had been born around 5 years before. That time I had done a huge walk against the wind, against Wellington wind from Miramar to the city. This place was called the Evans Bay Patent Slip and had been opened in 1879 and closed in the 1960s. It was lucky that what was left was preserved and the road goes over part of the slip way, so no boats are going to go down that way. Its good that something was left instead of being wiped away. It was around a 40 min walk to the Weta Cave and I ended up walking the whole way there as it wasn’t that far to be honest, I did get to see planes take off at the airport on the way past. I mucked around with the trolls out the front and then went inside. They had changed it alot as there were displays from previous movies like Ghost in The Shell. There was more room to move. I had been told about the tours, but somehow I weasled my way onto a tour as they were having reduced numbers and the guide ok’d it. Much to my pleasure. The tour went around the props like the ones they had made for movies like Lord of The Rings and even spoke to the guy who worked on many things like The Matrix and something for Aussies. He had created The Gobbledok (chippies, chippies), that branded me as an Australian right away. I thought it was pretty funny. The tour guide was from South Africa and he mentioned in passing that they had a person on a tour in the last couple of weeks who was from Italy and coughed. Everyone did a step back except for the guide who gave her a hug. All the people I was on with were Americans and Canadians. I was surprised to hear they had not heard of Thunderbirds and I had thought they were joking at first. I did go through the shop again and wanted to buy a few things, but couldn’t as I don’t have enough room for figurines. I did get a shirt though.

I wandered off to get a bus and along the way had a small coffee. I caught the bus and got off at the Massey university thinking about using their loos, but kept on walking down to the National War memorial where I used the loo there and sat for half hour in the sun charging my phone and eating some nut bars that I had bought along for the ride. I took my timer in leaving and walked along Courtney Place where I visited a bookstore that I knew of. One that I liked and found several books that I was wanting. Hopefully my bag isn’t too heavy when I am at the airport to fly off the next day. It was already getting late and I had to head back as I needed a shower and to start packing my things as I was going to be leaving. I ended up in the Gastro pub again for dinner where I had chicken. It wasn’t too bad and it was a full meal. I also made sure I would be catching the bus from the right place as I don’t want to be stuck in the wrong area like this morning and have to catch another bus. Tomorrow shall tell me what is happening and my flight had been moved to an hour earlier, which doesn’t bother me at all. So long as everything runs smoothly I will be alright and happy when everything falls into place.

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