Following my flight from Auckland, I landed myself in the dark hours of Capital Wellington.
It was 9pm when I found my way out of the airport into the city through the public bus transfer where along with other travellers who were obviously familiar with Wellington, unlike myself.
But I tagged along, assuring the bus driver every few passing minutes that I needed to get off at the train station, wherever that was.
Because my lodge, which I cleverly booked over the internet, was located "slightly" out of town and would take 20 minutes of train ride + 20 min of walk time to reach.
on the empty night train
Now here I learnt about the first thing in New Zealand, was that the country is a bit "back-dated" (pardon).
I onced heard a joke where a pilot landing in Christchurch had kindly reminded its passengers to rewind their watch 20 years back. Haha.. kiwi humour, you gotta love them.
My experience here was almost relevant.
You see, in any country I've ever been, before boarding a train, you would need to buy ticket either over the counter or from a ticketing machine, yes?
Then you would get on the train and insert your ticket into a ticketing slot machine provided at the sides of all sliding doors on the train.
Well, I had the ticket, I got on the train, but I couldn't find no ticket machine to stub my ticket on.
I didn't want to end up being caught for illegal boarding, so I shyly, almost apologetically, approached a lady passenger sitting at the far edge of the carriage and asked her where I could get my ticket stamped on.
This was what she replied: "Oh, we're a bit slow here (smile). We don't have any machine, the conductor will come over shortly after the train departs to stub your ticket."
'Wow~ okay. Time to wind my clock backwards." I noted to myself.
Well, anyway, after much hoo-ha, phone calls and direction-ings,
it was a heck of a walk in the dark when you're exhausted
I managed to check into my room at Moana Lodge, a lovely seafront lodge wayyyy out of town, and slumped onto my sweet lovely queen size bed.
Now I know I always give people the perception that I like to travel cheaply (as in backpack style). Reason being I simply enjoy that. To prove to myself that despite being a city girl, I can rough it out when I want to. And apart from stretching my dollars, I was able to meet a lot of fun travellers along the way too.
But earlier this year, I decided to try something different. I opted for a travel style a grade higher.
That meant more luxurious transportations, better dressing style (rather than slacks and shirts), better accommodation and better food. I still love backpacking, but it's time to move into the next travel phase in life. Maybe it's the age, who knows. I wanted something different.
This time, I had a whole room to myself at this delicious lodge.
"Good Morning~!"
my messy bed
I awoke to the most splendid view at the back of the lodge.
My first day view of Wellington.
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