Day 150 Ferry Drama

6th March 2009

How hard is it to get on a coach?

Day 150

So my coach that picks me up from the hostel and goes to the ferry terminal for the ferry to the south island leaves at 7:15am... or so I thought. I got outside the hostel at 7:15am to see it drive past me. Ok so maybe I got there a little after 7:15 and I remember the driver yesterday saying they leave Wellington at 7:15 even thought I thought he was just saying that to get me there 15 minutes early (like they usually do) and I thought the actual time the coach would leave was 7:30 am. By these calculations I was about 10 minutes early for the coach. It just worried me that the coach had just driven past me and that there was no one else around waiting for a coach, well there was no one else around at all!

Getting slightly worried, I went into the hostel and asked what time the coach usually leaves. The girl behind the desk said she didn't know, but she had just seen a coach drive past. To save face, I said that it was just going to get petrol (which I hoped) even though I obviously had no idea and I had just asked about it and now I was acting like I knew what was going on to avoid the embarassment of knowing that she was thinking I had missed the coach. It was very bizarre.

I went back outside and was extremely aware that I was on my own. My ticket for the ferry, which I had bought last night, said final check in time was 7:40am. It was now 7:30am. Not bothered about losing face anymore I went back to the receptionist and asked her to call me a taxi. The taxi was at the hostel in 5 minutes, although it felt I had been waiting a lot longer. The taxi man said it would take 10 minutes to get to the ferry terminal.

I told him about how I'd been at the hostel on time and how the coach had driven straight past me and now I may miss the ferry. He seemed to be listening (a taxi driver skill?), but did not seem to share the same outrage at the coach driver as I did.

In the end, I got to the terminal and onto the ferry and was still fuming so marched over to the phones and tried to call the coach office to inform them that I had been stranded and forgotten. I frantically pressed the buttons but found that none of the phones worked, which looking back was definately a good thing as when I had calmed down I admitted to myself that the coach hadn't left early but it was I who had been late and missed the coach.

Day 149 Te Papa Museum

5th March 2009

A museum is still a museum

Day 149

Got up and went to Te Papa Museum, New Zealand's best and interactive experience apparently. Everyone raves on about how good it is and how 'you'll need at least a whole day there'. I was in and out in 2 hours. It was OK and all but maybe it was bigged up too much.

Day 148 Hostels, urgh

4th March 2009

Hostel life

Day 148

Was woken up at 2:30am by a fire alarm. Everyone in the hostel had to go down the fire escape (5 floors for me) and wait outside until the firemen said it was OK to go back inside. It was quite random seeing everyone in their pyjamas and some still pissed up, including this guy who's birthday it had been. His friends had to carry him down the fire escape and he had pen all over his face from where they'd been writing on him.

It didn't take long until we could go back to our rooms (up 5 floors). Apparently someone had set off the fire alarm. Very clever.

Got back to sleep only to be woken up by 3 girls in the room returning from their night out and turning on the light. They began reminiscing, loudly, about how liberating they found it when they participated in the bar game that involved them stripping off in front of the whole bar for a free drink (I doubt they'll feel liberated in the morning. How quickly it changes to embarassment). They eventually went to sleep.

In the morning the sounds of a pneumatic drill on the streets below rung in my ears even though the room was far up and the windows were closed. Unfortunately they didn't shut properly. Oh the joys of staying in a hostel!