Wet in Wellington
October 7, 2008
I was due to fly out of Wellington today on a tiny Cessna across Cook Strait, to start my tour of the south island. However, it seems that the weather has decided to play silly buggers, and this morning I woke up to a massive storm. The kind where the umbrella flaps out the wrong way even before it’s finished opening, where the wind is so strong that sometimes you just cannot go in the direction you want to despite your best efforts, and where you are soaked to the bone in a few seconds because your umbrella is unusable.
The endless optimist, I did get a taxi to the airport (because, joke on joke, the busses are on strike today), only to end up in the midst of chaos: Wellington airport is closed, all flights cancelled until early afternoon at the very least. So, I missed not only my flight, but also my connection for the bus to Nelson later today. Sigh.
And, of course, there is no bus service to Nelson tomorrow, meaning that I have to stay 3 days in Wellington, probably with shitty weather throughout, instead of my original plan to just spend the night here on the way down, then spend a little longer towards the end of my trip, with possibly more clement skies.
Damn.
Well, at least I get a little extension to do some more geocaching, if the weather clears up a bit. During the trip down from Taupo to Wellington, the bus driver was fantastic, and agreed to stop along the way for me to go hunting for caches along Highway 1. I only found 1 of the 3 we tried for, mostly because I gave up after a few minutes rather than delay the whole coach. Then I got another in Wellington, at a very scenic spot. But most importantly, I explained what geocaching is all about to many bewildered co-travellers, and got people rather excited about the idea of a huge community playing a massive scale version of, essentially, hide-and-seek.
No photos today, can’t be bothered to unload the camera and do triage right now. Maybe later. Now, it’s time to find a cosy, warm pub to shelter me from the storm, and get a bite to eat.
Hot jets!