paekakariki to welly

We left our cute little seaside hostel this morning to drive back to Wellington. Lucy’s taking the ferry today to Picton today and I was going to go with her, but decided to take a day in Wellington to get everything organized before heading off to Blenheim by way of Picton tomorrow.

I think we should have taken Lucy hostage – we need someone to help us drive on the left side of the road! We got lost for about an hour today after dropping her off at the ferry terminal. Well, we didn’t exactly get lost – just couldn’t get to where we were going, because New Zealanders don’t believe in street signs, but they do believe in one-way streets.

Sabrina made her 2 pm interview with the temp agency with about 30 seconds to spare, and I took the car to try to check into the hostel. I managed to parallel park perfectly on a steep hill, and then couldn’t find the parking coupon machine – and had been told that the parking enforcement was ruthless. Then some nice who I asked for parking-machine directions told me I could park at their house, so I did, and dragged 4 bags up about ½ of another longer/steeper hill…and I was only about ¼ of the way to the hostel. Sabrina called as I was taking a break, so I turned around, got the car, picked her up, and had her stay with the car right outside the hostel while I checked in.

Time to turn the car back in – I’ll only half miss it. I’m back at the hostel now, going through pictures in the TV lounge, and will be booking my ferry, hostel and bus trip later on tonight.

Photo: view from our hostel in Peikakareipi, we could see to the South Island from there!