Wellington

Today I would travel from Napier to Wellington on the most southern tip of the North Island. It was going to be almost a 6 hour drive to do the 325 km trip so I splurged on what Intercity calls their Gold class. For $55 I got a leather seat at the front of the bus. The bus departed at 7:45 am so the alarm went off way too early for me but at least there were no hills, just a brisk 10 minute walk to the bus stop. There were some stops along the route with a 30 minute break at Palmerston North where they had the nicest Art Deco public toilets. Both AU and NZ have readily available public toilets in the downtown areas of the cities. They are free, clean and used by everyone, not a hangout for the homeless which is often the case in some cities.

Intercity is very punctual so we arrived in Wellington on schedule at 2 pm. Last night I had added the directions for my hotel on a maps app that doesn’t require wifi. I had forgotten how slow this app is to find my location so I impatiently headed off in the direction that I thought was correct. Wrong.....ten minutes later I discovered that I was going in the opposite direction! The app was now functional and I eventually found my way to the hotel, arriving hot and flustered. What was supposed to take 10 minutes took me 40! I chose the hotel based on close proximity to the bus terminal but what the hotel website doesn’t tell you is that it is ALL uphill! After checking in I was exhausted from lugging my luggage up that hill and had very little sleep the night before. A nap seemed warranted, something I rarely do, but I slept soundly for 2 hours!! That pretty much ruined my plans to explore the city. The hotel was a real bargain compared to the rates of those right downtown. It was like a modern Motel 6, which was fine, but there was absolutely nothing in the immediate area and very few people. Even the one pizza restaurant down the street was closed in the evening! It was a 30 minute walk downtown so although I saved money it wasn’t worth the inconvenience.Read more