Friday, March 6: Cloudy at first with a few showers, then in Wellington very heavy rain clearing in the course of the afternoon

Missy & Brian’s (airbnb, $45)

At just after 9:00 I was the first up and proceeded to make some coffee, after which Julie got up and offered me some wheatbix and toast as well. I was determined to get as much of a day’s work done as possible and started on scheduling the next few blog posts with pictures so that I can concentrate on organising the rest of the tour. Low tide at Napier seems to be reasonable to do the gannets (Cape Kidnappers) walk in two weeks’ time, so it won’t be on the agenda for next week. Put in a request for kayaking on the Manawatu for the day in Palmy.

Was working my way through when a request from Gold popped up about having a late lunch in Wellington so I finished what I could of the blog post and packed my stuff up. In the meantime James had left for work, and Julie was in their part of the house, and when it was time for me to leave she wasn’t responding, so I locked the door & dropped the key in the garage. Then it was through the sometimes very heavy rain into Wellington. Made it into Willis St without a hitch, and put the car in the car park, had a look around and then went across the street to wait for Gold who then materialised. We went back over to the food court for lunch – both of us had some kind of wrap with potatoes, meat (mine was lamb), some salad and sauce (mine was yoghurt) for $9.5 a piece. I had noticed that @ $10 45 minutes parking would be obtained, which we got credited to the parking ticket and the parking cost was thereby reduced to $6.

We had quite a lot in common about the role of thinking, so Skeptics in the Pub tonight should be fun. Met another friend of his, Tom, on the way out and had a little discussion on climate change.

Then it was back out to Tawa to check out this suburb. May very well take the train this evening, as it is only 15 minutes, and no parking fee. Eventually found the library and put through a booking request for Rotorua for 3 nights, and already had a reply from the kayaking place that there is not enough water in the river. So that looks like hiking tomorrow. As soon as the slow internet here has walking directions from the station to the pub I’ll be off to Missy’s and then trying for the 5:45 to Wellington. There didn’t seem to be any ticketing machines at the station so I will have to ask about where the tickets are paid for. Perhaps there are machines on the train.

Found Missy’s place, drove into the driveway but thought I might be blocking it so parked outside, but she was in the house all the time & told me I could park there anyway because they had no car. After a brief introduction (also to Axel, a white, playful and very young kitten) I moved my stuff in & then decided on the train for the evening. The conductors sold tickets themselves, the inward journey set me back only $5. Was quickly in town (only 3 stops) and then rather surprisingly found my way through town (much longer walk ~20 minutes) via Cuba St (memories of Mel) to the pub & made myself known. More & more skeptics arrived and by just after 7:00 it was deemed that I should begin. Made the same mistake of not getting anything to eat & only one Guinness but anyhows. Talk was a little chaotic, and a long discussion afterwards, especially with one historian.

Just after 9:15 I took my leave and made my way to the station, keeping close to the shoreline this time. Was back here around 10:00. Sorted out one more photo for the blog (btw 1600*1200 will never work on WordPress because 1600 modulo 3 ≠ 0, something that stupid has to be recorded). Simon & Missy turned up soon after & after a couple of pictures of 2010, they went to bed. Had chatted with Tom & Matthew in the meantime.