Today I did, or at least attempted to do, two customary things for a New Zealand Sunday. The first was going to an Open House viewing, and the second was tramping. But due to poor planning the two things became merged and in the end it was just a tramp. OK, my friends back in the UK will be wondering why I am hanging around with the homeless - or maybe you have just been waiting for this moment? Remember all that talk about park benches before I left - Well sorry to disappoint you, but tramping is the term used here for going on a bit of a hike, and is in fact the most popular outdoor activity (according to some random web page I just pulled up). Therefore I am assuming that when tramping, you tramp....and boy did I tramp!
You see the two or three open homes I wanted to go to were supposedly within walking distance of the city, so seeing if the proof was in the pudding, I decided to walk to them. I set off at 11:30 thinking 60mins should be plenty of time (the first opened at 12:30 you see). Well, 5 mins later and I was at the bay front walking along the esplanade...another 5 mins and I am at the Te Papa national museum.
OK, so far so good, but there is a nice feature of Wellington that you only really see once you are here...it is surrounded by a fair number of mountains and large hills - in fact beyond the flat bit where the CBD and train station are - most of it is either / or \ as opposed to -. This makes it nice and compact, and gives plenty of houses the chance of a nice view, as you see many perched on terrace roads which wind their way up and down the sides. However there is one mountain (or large hill) which sits on the SE side of the city called Mt. Victoria (I bet she never even saw the thing!)...and it was this that was now between me and my open home!
The climb started easily enough with some steps rising from Oriental Bay (a posh apartment bit of Welly with a beach and ipod runners aplenty) - I say easily, after the first 50 I was loosing a bit of puff - but to save embarrassment of being an unfit pom from flat Essex, I used the old 'pausing to take a photo' method to rest every 10 or so steps. Now bearing in mind the open house I was on the way to, was potentially for Caroline to buy, I was becoming less confident she would consider this 'walking to the city' with every extra step I took up.
The steps ended on a noticeably quieter street (McFarlane I think), which commanded pretty good views of the city below. The houses around here were all white wooden clapperboard fronted with large windows held in contrasting painted frames. There was also a nice little corner shop with its original 1920's porch and shop windows - most in New Zealand suburbs are like this still - these shops are always easy to spot as they have the blue and white TipTop logo running around the porch, which is the New Zealand version of Walls (same company I think).
After a few mins enjoying the atmosphere here and taking a snap or two, I knew that the house I was trying to get to was further up and over the hill, so onwards and unfortunately upwards I pressed. By now it had been over 30 mins since I left the city and I knew this would be the cut off of 'close to the town for walking' that I or Caroline would accept. However I had intended to see the houses, so I stubbornly carried on walking.
A few more feet on and I turned a corner to see trees, yep no houses, but plenty of trees sitting atop the crest of Mt. Victoria - you see it has been set aside as a national park and actually contains the town belt line and a number of 'tramps' - (yes there are footpaths too, I add this for the UK humor) - so which tramp should I take? A series of signs show you three coloured routes - what they do not show you is any climb or descend, or approx. timings. In fact they do not show much of the destination or how they link the areas either. Whilst I was trying to decided which one would be the most direct to the houses, a couple of locals arrived and started discussing their route. Me being me I had to say something, so after one of them had stated she wanted a route which went up, I turned and added "That is the trouble, they all go up around here, there is very little along to be had!", of course she retorted with "They go down as well!". I paused for a bit too long at this point, trying to decide if a 'ooerr' comment would be misconstrued...luckily they tramped off before I made a fool of myself.
So I was now tramping my chosen blue route...up, up, up I went, followed by down, down, down - and this pattern looped for about 30 mins until on one of my increasingly frequent pauses for photo's, a Lycra clad middle aged woman came briskly walking past. As she went by she turned and said "Would you like me to take a photo of you?", now, being naturally good looking as I am, I get this all the time...erm, nope, I don't think I have ever been in the middle of a wood on a footpath and been asked if I wanted a photo. Remember I was stopping for breath and just giving the impression of taking a photo. I called back to her with a nonchalant "No, it's OK thanks" and tramp, tramp, tramp, she had vanished over a nearby brow. Of course I did consider saying "No, it's OK, but you can call me an ambulance if you want", but I was too out of breath for such a long sentence.
Before I set off again two things struck me - the first was I had missed the open house times, but the second was a feeling of familiarity to my immediate surroundings. I could see trees and banks that combined gave an impression of seeing them before somewhere - It was once I too had gone over the brow of the hill that I saw a little sign point back to the spot I had stopped..it said "Lord Of The Rings Movie Location", and it turns out the spot I had paused in was where the 'Get off of the road' sequence with the hobbits hiding from the black rider was shot. That explains the picture offer, I thought to myself, still I had always wondered where that bit was filmed.
I continued mainly downwards now and eventually popped out on a street with a bus stop at the end - my tramping had taken its toll on me and the large sweat patch on my shirt advertised this to everyone - therefore I was glad of getting the back seat of a bus which arrived a few mins after I got there, and this slowly wound its way back into the city with plenty of time for me to dry off.
I finished off the day by having a nice chili lunch in Arizona (the restaurant not state) and then returned to my apartment to check my email and online dating responses. I was very happy to see the two women I had sent messages too had both replied with a few short but welcoming words. Of course in comparison to my messages, a few chapters of a book would look short, so I was not disheartened by this. My pictures have yet to be approved either, so I guess I was lucky to get anything in one way!
I have since replied to both of the women, and indeed given the details of this blog to one of them, Julia, so if you are reading this then hi again Julia...you understand if we ever meet that by you having read this blog there will be two or three fewer anecdotes I can share...but if you ask any of my friends who comment on here, they will, I am sure, tell you not to worry, as I have plenty more! Of course I am sure some of them (Daf?) may add a comment about Julia actually being James or something like that - but as I say on my profile thing, I am looking for people to hang about with...maybe go tramping on the orange or yellow route with...so Julia or James is not a problem, but it would be even better if they had a car!
So there you have it, a typical Kiwi Sunday...for Kev anyway!
PS Before I end, have you noticed the picture to the right of this, "How Kiwi is Kev?", this was something I noticed earlier in the week, but without Lycra clad women being around it was a little difficult to take a picture of...still I have done so now, and how I did will remain a secret! Let me know if this is a freaky coincidence or me seeing things.