|
|
October 15
Papakowhai to Sydney
|
The original plan had been to walk down the steps to the train. The minute
that I saw the rain on the windows, I rang the neighbours and begged a
lift. This got me to the station earlier than I had intended and I waited
and waited for a train. During this time the clouds glowered but no more
rain appeared. When the train into Wellington was 10 minutes late and the
outwards one was 15 minutes late, I started to panic. Remembering that
Doug had offered me a lift, I had started to dial his number to see if
it was still on offer, when both trains arrived at the same time.
I climbed aboard and we proceeded into Wellington at no great pace,
mainly because of a series of track maintenance works, arriving about 15
minutes behind schedule.
|
|
Paremata Station in the
gloom
|
Wellington Bus Station
|
I waited at the bus stop and was then confused when either
the bus I had intended to catch arrived 12 minutes late or the following
bus arrived 8 minutes early. Either way, I arrived at the airport slightly
later than scheduled but, in the absence of queues anywhere (except to
pay the departure tax), I sailed through the formalities and had an hour
to wait in the lounge.
|
Boarding was fine but we then had to wait 30 minutes for a lady who had
checked in but not bothered to board. She eventually arrived, looking very
elegant, was greeted by a chorus of boos but obviously didn’t give a stuff
that she had just angered and inconvenienced a whole plane load of people.
|
Waiting patiently in
the lounge
|
|
The flight was slightly bumpy but not excessively so, and we made fair
time, arriving about 20 minutes late. From there on, everything worked
like clockwork. I completed immigration, collected my bag, caught the train
and was checking into the hotel within 60 minutes of landing. That’s Singapore-like
efficiency!
The apartment is amazing. Very smart, with a kitchen to die for and even
a washing machine. This later proved to be a bit of a problem and I never
managed to get the tumble drier bit to work. The safe wasn’t working, either,
and the man from reception wrestled with it for a while before admitting
defeat.
Sir John Young Hotel
|
|
|
First beer of the trip
|
Just round the corner from the hotel is the Sir John Young Hotel, a typical
Sydney boozer. I had my first beer of the trip, took some photos and considered
having a steak. I decided against as the only one on offer was 300 gm and
I didn’t want that much.
|
|
Liverpool Street -
the Spanish Quarter
|
Tapas dinner
|
Given that I was in the Spanish Quarter (at least half a dozen establishments)
I reverted to the original plan and hit a Tapas bar. I ordered a salad,
some chorizo and some calamari, to be washed down by a glass of white wine.
Excellent and I was suitably replete by the end. Many (most?) of my fellow
diners were of Asian origin. This tied in with my memories from my last
visit that this part of town was a bit like Little Singapore.
Over the road is a large supermarket and I adjourned there to collect some
supplies for my breakfasts. Prices were quite high, particularly for the
dairy products. I will have to check if that is typical or just a feature
of shopping in an inner city supermarket. I then crawled home to bed.
October 16
|