After my 4 days Woof job in Napier I decided to make south for Wellington, the capital of New-Zealand. I wanted to stay along the east coast because the weather is better over there and that way I could avoid Palmerston-North. That is a boring metropolitan area where I have to pass through anyway when I go back north at the end of my trip. Avoiding Palmerston-North meant I had to be creative about my means of transport. And that I had to take it slow.
First I took the local bus to Hastings, the smaller twin sister of Napier. It's only 20 km from Napier and it suffered the same faith as Napier in the 1931 earthquake. Hastings was also rebuild in art deco style but they incorporated Spanish mission style in their city design. And that just looks as ugly and out of place as it does in Belgium. I arrived in the hostel in Hastings when there was a dress up party planned to celebrate the managers birthday. So I dressed up as the bearded lady, got drunk and smoked way to many cigarettes (I hadn't smoked in 4 days remember). It was a fun party with lots of different nationalities to talk to. Not just 10 Germans and 2 British guys as in most hostels around New-Zealand. The day after I had a massive hangover (like everybody in the hostel) but I still went to the Sundays farmers market. And that was a good idea, it was a sunny spring day, I sat there on the grass with strong coffee, listening to a really good guitar player and I could taste all the good stuff the farmers were selling. Lovely cheese and sausages, whole grain bread and all sorts of jams, chutneys and pastries. It was a really nice way to get over a hangover.
My next stop was Waipawa, also by local bus. Waipawa is a really small farmers town in the middle of New-Zealand's sheep country. There are maybe 40 houses over there but still it has 3 churches (Anglican, methodist and catholic), a pub and a campsite. And the last one is the reason I went to Waipawa. (Going to Waipawa for the pub is stupid because it was closed at 8.30pm, as my British neighbors told me the day after). The campsite was almost empty and very cheap but real nice. Located next to the river and planted with cherry trees. The cherry trees are blossoming at the moment since it's spring over here. As you all know it can still be very cold at night in spring. That night a nearly froze my nose of and I couldn't sleep anymore in the coldest hours before dawn. It was a good thing I went to bed at 8pm because it was dark and I couldn't do anything else.
The next day I went to Woodville, for this trip I could use the intercity bus again, my usual means of transport. Woodville is a dead town, still in sheep country and located near the hills that catch the rain before it gets to the east coast. Woodville is close to Palmerston-north and most people left Woodville for the city. But I think it is beautiful over there. It's quiet and everywhere around you see green glowing hills. Many Maori (and some backpackers as well) think their country went to shit when the Europeans arrived, they brought pollution, alcoholism and McDonalds with them. This may all be well and true but it were also the Europeans who cultivated the land for their sheep and they created the green hills that I find so beautiful. Woodville isn't used to travelers, the youths I asked for directions couldn't understand why I came to their town. It also has only 1 hotel and a backpackers hostel that's actually closed. Because the hotel was very expensive I decided to try and persuade the owner of the hostel to let me stay for a night. And it worked. Maybe because he was German or maybe because he felt sorry for me that I ended up in Woodville. I could stay in his hostel, off-course I was all alone so I basically got a giant hotel room for the price of a bed in a dorm. The hostel has been empty for a long time so it was a bit dirty and full of ants but I guess most hostels in Asia are far worse so I slept in my liner with my own blankets and I tried not to dream of giant ants. (That night I regretted playing Fallout 3 so much fallout in the past).
From Woodville to Masterton there just isn't any public transport. That meant I had to hitch a ride. I met a few backpackers who had been hitchhiking and they told me it's easy enough to flag a ride over here. But they were all female, I had a feeling it wouldn't be so easy for a scruffy looking bearded guy like me. I gave myself the entire day to get to Masterton. But in just 45 minutes I found me a ride that went all the way to Masterton. (the girls could do it in 15 minutes though). A former Dutchmen picked me up. He had been living in New-Zealand for 32 years and he did really good for himself. He has a high executive function in a custom made carpet business. Auckland airport, the biggest casino in new-Zealand and the national museum are some of his customers. But He got really rich by buying farm land on the edge of growing towns. In only a few years his farm land became residential land and that's when he sells, for 7-8 times the price of his original investment. He has been doing this for 20 years and now he just bought some land near Tongariro national park, with view on the volcanoes, where he plans to build a lodge for the rich and famous. We are talking 1000 dollar a night accommodation. That lodge is going to be his retirement plan. The guy liked to boast about how well he has done in life and I gladly indulged him. As a hitchhiker you are entitled to give your driver a good time and laugh with all his jokes, because when you are bad company he might not stop for the next hitchhiker he sees down the road.
Because I got to Masterton earlier than I expected I had some time to kill. So I went to the local sheep museum. In Masterton they are crazy about sheep shearing. They host the yearly Golden Shear competition and the winner of that competition represents New-Zealand on the world championship. Yeah, I didn't know there is a world championship in sheep shearing either. And it is no laughing matter, the guys who compete are professionals, build like rugby players and they shear 20 sheep in under 15 minutes. The museum is located in a shear shed from the 19th century and I learned a lot about how it was done in those days. It was a tough live to say the least. Long hours, low pay and always on the road. Shearers were a special breed of men, a bit like truckers or circus people these days. I also learned that there is sheep in much more products then you woeld think. Besides the obvious wool clothing and lamb chops parts of sheep are used to make condoms, glycerin, hardened steel and even milkshake thickener.
After 3 days on the road in sheep country I had enough of grass hills and sheep. I took the commuters train from Masterton to wellington and got dropped back into the modern world. Commuters have to get to their office by 8am so the train leaves Masterton at 6:30am. Getting up at 5am wasn't so bad as it might look. Masterton doesn't have a hostel so I slept in my tent again. The cold woke me up at 5am anyway. Because I got an early train I had time to make a stop in Upper Hutt. That's a satellite town for Wellington, some 30km up north along the Hutt river. There is nothing much to see in town but the Hutt river is better known by Tolkien geeks as the mighty river Anduin. There are actually 3 movie locations on a 10km stretch of the river. So I went hunting for them. The first one I found were the fields of Isengard. That was pretty disappointing because in reality it's just a grass field where Peter Jacksons special effects crew placed the tower of Orthanc on top. After that site I walked along the river. It was raining pretty hard and I had my backpack and all my stuff with me so that wasn't so nice. But the journey of the fellowship was pretty hard as well so that only added to the magic. I walked to the spot where they filmed scenes of the fellowship sailing the Anduin river in their elven boats. The land alongside the river is amazingly beautiful compared to the gray suburbs that lay just 200m away. It was still raining, my backpack was getting soaked and my heart grew weary. But after a lunch stop where I ate some lembas (a chocolate cookie and a smoke) I fell strong and light again and I found the courage to head on. I didn't make it to the last location though. After 3 hours in the pouring rain I gave up a went to look for a train station where I could catch another train to Wellington.
So now I'm in Wellington, this great nations capital. And it's actually a really cool place. Not like Auckland at all.
First I took the local bus to Hastings, the smaller twin sister of Napier. It's only 20 km from Napier and it suffered the same faith as Napier in the 1931 earthquake. Hastings was also rebuild in art deco style but they incorporated Spanish mission style in their city design. And that just looks as ugly and out of place as it does in Belgium. I arrived in the hostel in Hastings when there was a dress up party planned to celebrate the managers birthday. So I dressed up as the bearded lady, got drunk and smoked way to many cigarettes (I hadn't smoked in 4 days remember). It was a fun party with lots of different nationalities to talk to. Not just 10 Germans and 2 British guys as in most hostels around New-Zealand. The day after I had a massive hangover (like everybody in the hostel) but I still went to the Sundays farmers market. And that was a good idea, it was a sunny spring day, I sat there on the grass with strong coffee, listening to a really good guitar player and I could taste all the good stuff the farmers were selling. Lovely cheese and sausages, whole grain bread and all sorts of jams, chutneys and pastries. It was a really nice way to get over a hangover.
My next stop was Waipawa, also by local bus. Waipawa is a really small farmers town in the middle of New-Zealand's sheep country. There are maybe 40 houses over there but still it has 3 churches (Anglican, methodist and catholic), a pub and a campsite. And the last one is the reason I went to Waipawa. (Going to Waipawa for the pub is stupid because it was closed at 8.30pm, as my British neighbors told me the day after). The campsite was almost empty and very cheap but real nice. Located next to the river and planted with cherry trees. The cherry trees are blossoming at the moment since it's spring over here. As you all know it can still be very cold at night in spring. That night a nearly froze my nose of and I couldn't sleep anymore in the coldest hours before dawn. It was a good thing I went to bed at 8pm because it was dark and I couldn't do anything else.
The next day I went to Woodville, for this trip I could use the intercity bus again, my usual means of transport. Woodville is a dead town, still in sheep country and located near the hills that catch the rain before it gets to the east coast. Woodville is close to Palmerston-north and most people left Woodville for the city. But I think it is beautiful over there. It's quiet and everywhere around you see green glowing hills. Many Maori (and some backpackers as well) think their country went to shit when the Europeans arrived, they brought pollution, alcoholism and McDonalds with them. This may all be well and true but it were also the Europeans who cultivated the land for their sheep and they created the green hills that I find so beautiful. Woodville isn't used to travelers, the youths I asked for directions couldn't understand why I came to their town. It also has only 1 hotel and a backpackers hostel that's actually closed. Because the hotel was very expensive I decided to try and persuade the owner of the hostel to let me stay for a night. And it worked. Maybe because he was German or maybe because he felt sorry for me that I ended up in Woodville. I could stay in his hostel, off-course I was all alone so I basically got a giant hotel room for the price of a bed in a dorm. The hostel has been empty for a long time so it was a bit dirty and full of ants but I guess most hostels in Asia are far worse so I slept in my liner with my own blankets and I tried not to dream of giant ants. (That night I regretted playing Fallout 3 so much fallout in the past).
From Woodville to Masterton there just isn't any public transport. That meant I had to hitch a ride. I met a few backpackers who had been hitchhiking and they told me it's easy enough to flag a ride over here. But they were all female, I had a feeling it wouldn't be so easy for a scruffy looking bearded guy like me. I gave myself the entire day to get to Masterton. But in just 45 minutes I found me a ride that went all the way to Masterton. (the girls could do it in 15 minutes though). A former Dutchmen picked me up. He had been living in New-Zealand for 32 years and he did really good for himself. He has a high executive function in a custom made carpet business. Auckland airport, the biggest casino in new-Zealand and the national museum are some of his customers. But He got really rich by buying farm land on the edge of growing towns. In only a few years his farm land became residential land and that's when he sells, for 7-8 times the price of his original investment. He has been doing this for 20 years and now he just bought some land near Tongariro national park, with view on the volcanoes, where he plans to build a lodge for the rich and famous. We are talking 1000 dollar a night accommodation. That lodge is going to be his retirement plan. The guy liked to boast about how well he has done in life and I gladly indulged him. As a hitchhiker you are entitled to give your driver a good time and laugh with all his jokes, because when you are bad company he might not stop for the next hitchhiker he sees down the road.
Because I got to Masterton earlier than I expected I had some time to kill. So I went to the local sheep museum. In Masterton they are crazy about sheep shearing. They host the yearly Golden Shear competition and the winner of that competition represents New-Zealand on the world championship. Yeah, I didn't know there is a world championship in sheep shearing either. And it is no laughing matter, the guys who compete are professionals, build like rugby players and they shear 20 sheep in under 15 minutes. The museum is located in a shear shed from the 19th century and I learned a lot about how it was done in those days. It was a tough live to say the least. Long hours, low pay and always on the road. Shearers were a special breed of men, a bit like truckers or circus people these days. I also learned that there is sheep in much more products then you woeld think. Besides the obvious wool clothing and lamb chops parts of sheep are used to make condoms, glycerin, hardened steel and even milkshake thickener.
After 3 days on the road in sheep country I had enough of grass hills and sheep. I took the commuters train from Masterton to wellington and got dropped back into the modern world. Commuters have to get to their office by 8am so the train leaves Masterton at 6:30am. Getting up at 5am wasn't so bad as it might look. Masterton doesn't have a hostel so I slept in my tent again. The cold woke me up at 5am anyway. Because I got an early train I had time to make a stop in Upper Hutt. That's a satellite town for Wellington, some 30km up north along the Hutt river. There is nothing much to see in town but the Hutt river is better known by Tolkien geeks as the mighty river Anduin. There are actually 3 movie locations on a 10km stretch of the river. So I went hunting for them. The first one I found were the fields of Isengard. That was pretty disappointing because in reality it's just a grass field where Peter Jacksons special effects crew placed the tower of Orthanc on top. After that site I walked along the river. It was raining pretty hard and I had my backpack and all my stuff with me so that wasn't so nice. But the journey of the fellowship was pretty hard as well so that only added to the magic. I walked to the spot where they filmed scenes of the fellowship sailing the Anduin river in their elven boats. The land alongside the river is amazingly beautiful compared to the gray suburbs that lay just 200m away. It was still raining, my backpack was getting soaked and my heart grew weary. But after a lunch stop where I ate some lembas (a chocolate cookie and a smoke) I fell strong and light again and I found the courage to head on. I didn't make it to the last location though. After 3 hours in the pouring rain I gave up a went to look for a train station where I could catch another train to Wellington.
So now I'm in Wellington, this great nations capital. And it's actually a really cool place. Not like Auckland at all.
Spanish mission style in Hastings
The camp site in Waipawa where I celebrated Philippe Gilberts rainbow jersey
Beautiful grassy hills in Woodville
The shearing shed in Masterton
Unfortunately I can't show you any pictures of the Hutt valley, when I was transferring the pictures to my tablet I screwed up and now they are all gone. When I go back north at the end of the trip I'll just have to go back there because it's very beautiful. And maybe I have better weather the next time.
blijkbaar zit je daar goed, Wellington is the place to be, de ideale plaats om je oude kater gezelschap te geven. Scheer daar toch je benen als je nog als 'bearded lady' door het nachtleven stapt. tot schrijfs !
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