NZ13
On to Wellington
We
rode in early morning fog to find our meeting point in a tiny town whose name I forget.
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| Pukaha National Wildlife Centre |
NZ
has a lot of names that sound very familiar and even the spellings are close,
you really have to study the name. Here are a few examples: Whangamata,
Whangamoa, Whangapoua, etc. It’s
hard to remember them. I am just not used to reading them and a lot of them
start with a W. Whitianga, Whitikaho, Whitikau
(say that 3 time fast).
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| Lunch With a View |
Carol
and I, after we met the group in the fog at the wool store, decided to ride
just the 2 of us but it so happened we ended up riding with the group, well,
kind of. Riding in the fog, following people is just not a good idea. So we
added the night’s Hotel address to our GPSs and off we went. The fog lifted
soon enough and we saw the other riders.
We
stopped in a bird sanctuary for lunch, but only Carol walked around the small
zoo-like park. I do not like zoos in any form or shape. I sat in the café and
waited for Carol to show up after her tour.
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| Kaka Pests |
On the outside café table was a
bottle of spray to shoo away the Kaka Bird.
If you see a KaKa Bird, spritz them with the bottle and they will leave. Well,
I had the bottle and waited but no bird showed up. KaKa birds are rambunctious
and pester you for food, they might even bite and when they do bite, it’s a
bloody experience. I just had my coffee
and that was it. No Kaka birds came to bother me.
The
zoo had some Kiwi Birds, and Carol wanted to take pictures. I waited.
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| Infra Red Light Distorts Picture But Fools Noctural Kiwi Into Thinking It's Night |
If
I don’t see the animals in their natural habitat I am not keen to pay for a zoo
visit. I feel kind of sorry for the caged up creatures in a zoo. A zoo reminds
me of a prison for animals.
I
think we rode something like 300 km that day, but I am not sure, I don’t know
where we actually started from, but our goal was the Museum Arts Hotel in downtown Wellington. Wellington is NZ capital city since 1865. I read that Wellington
has a fantastic Museum, the Te Papa Museum, one of the best in the
world, but we had no time allotted to visit. The hotel we were in was across
the street from the Museum but when we got there, the Museum was starting to
close. We would have needed a full day just for this museum, but we are all in
a hurry, we have to ride.
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| Sculpture Made From Cans of Corned Beef, Hotel Hallway |
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| Corned Beef Cans |
We
reached the hotel, ate dinner and then had to get up early to get onto the
ferry; the ferry from the North Island to the South Island the next day.
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| Great Fish Dinner |
Parking
at the hotel was difficult, a bit of mayhem. We were given space at the side of
the driveway, but it was a very tight fit. Cars drove past the parked bikes
within inches. Even Ellis started to worry that some bikes might get hit, which
would have had a domino effect since all the bikes were parked very closely
together. It started to rain that night, not much but the roads were wet.
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| Lobby Art - YES! |
