Sunday 5 April 2009

It’s All About the Politics, Baby.

I was hoping to leave Wellington today – but due to my lack of planning, there was no room for me on the bus. Basically you have to ring up a few days in advance in order to be kept a seat on the bus – normally this doesn’t really matter, I always ring the night before. When I rang on Monday morning they told me there was only space to leave on Wednesday, which actually worked out quite well, I hadn’t really seen a lot of the city, so today was my sightseeing day!

I didn’t want to get up too early – but then I heard an announcement, “the hot water is being turned off from 10-12 this morning”. As soon as I heard this, I was up and legging it to the bathroom. I expected a rush of girls wanting their hot showers, but there wasn’t. Either they didn’t care, or they aren’t as lazy as me and they were already up and showered. I don’t know if the announcement was a joke, or if they were being serious – either way I got my hot shower! Then I got dressed and went into town. It’s surprising how quickly I can be ready in this country. I don’t need to blow dry or straighten my hair and I don’t wear any makeup, so I literally just have to throw on some clothes! The downside to being ready so quickly? I look like a hobo. But who cares, not me!

I decided to go to the Parliament buildings in Wellington – Wellington is actually the capital city, so it has all that exciting stuff! Using my trusty map I found my way to “the Beehive”, which is a parliament building that looks like a Beehive! It actually looks quite strange. I would give it a makeover, paint it yellow so it actually looks like a Beehive! In an episode of “Pushing Daisies” they had a Beehive Building and it was totally awesome and totally made up because “Pushing Daisies” is a T.V show. I need to remind myself every now and then.

Anyway, I walked around the Beehive and then around the actual fancy Parliament building. My trusty map took me to the back of the building, so I was walking around, slightly lost looking, but then I figured out how to get to the front! I then went into the big, fancy, Parliament building. I even had to go through a metal detector! Very cool! When I was inside, with all my forbidden gear (cameras, phones, laptops etc) I went and joined a tour of the building! It was actually really good. The tour guide was a nice chap, who was obviously very into his politics, why else would you give free guided tours every day? The tour went all through the Parliament House and into the Old Library, so it was nice to see that. Some of the interior design was really nice – I wish I could have taken some pictures, but I didn’t fancy being deported over a few pictures of a ceiling! We were able to see where the actual Parliamentary Debates happen and I was going to go to one, but I wanted to do a few more things in Wellington before I had to go back to the Hostel!

After my Parliament tour I went Esquires... What a surprise. I then went to the Cable Car Street/Alley. I got a return ticket for $5 and then went on possibly the shortest Cable Car journey ever. It was more of a tram than a Cable Car as it wasn’t suspended, I don’t think. Anyway, I got off at the Botanical Gardens, took some pictures, walked about for a bit. Then I walked down to the Lady Norwood Rose Garden. Which was, surprisingly enough, a rose garden. It was really nice, there were some pretty flowers, but it was quite a walk down, which meant, it was quite a walk back up. I have done so much walking on this trip. It’s disgusting! I don’t mind walking in nice surroundings, especially when the ground is nice and flat, but when it’s hilly and steep I’m not usually best pleased! I took a few pictures, then walked back up, stopping frequently for pictures/breath! The Botanical Gardens were alright, but I’m glad that they were free – there’s no way I would have spend money to see a bunch of trees!

After the Botanical Gardens I headed back to the Hostel. Oh, I almost forgot. On the way back to the Hostel something happened that made me really, really mad. I was walking along and in front of me were a bunch of teenagers, I had seen them in the same spot a few nights ago and I figured that they just didn’t have a lot to do, so they hung out on the street, in their “super cool” gang. As I walked past them, one particularly charming boy called out “**** You’re ugly”, I knew he wasn’t shouting at me, but I turned round anyway and looked at him. He had been shouting at a jogger, a pretty heavy jogger. When I looked at him he was all like “Oh, don’t worry I wasn’t talking about you, I was shouting at that fat guy”. Most people would be content with the fact that the boy with badly dyed hair wasn’t shouting at them, but it still made me mad. I just looked at him and half shouted, “That’s horrible. I don’t care who you were shouting at, that’s a horrible thing to say to anyone.” Then I turned around and walked off... The boy with the badly dyed hair just looked at me, I don’t think he knew what to say. There was also a very attractive business man beside me, who probably thought I was crazy, but people like that make me so mad. I can’t wait until the boy with the badly dyed hair gets old and fat and maybe some people will shout abuse at him. I hope.

Still in a bad mood I went back to my room, read my book, packed my things and then went to see Hayley! I was really glad I got to see her before I left – hopefully I’ll be able to catch up with her on my way back to Auckland! We just had a chat, nothing earth shatteringly important, but still, it was nice. Then I came back to my room and went to sleep. I was really excited to get up early the next morning, but somehow I managed to fall asleep!

Xx

No comments:

Post a Comment