9. Feeling Well(ington)

The next day, Rachelle and I woke up from a night in our free camping spot where we slept VERY soundly. 

View from our bach bed. Notice those clutch black-out windows.

Rae and I had planned a super easy day. We deserved it since we’d (pretty much) been to the most beautiful depths of hell and back.  We headed to Tui Brewery whose slogan was: “Yeah, right.”

For example:

Harsh

Or:
Weddings are more than Just free beer…yeah right!
I’m really keen to see your mother again….yeah right!
It was a legitimate business expense…yeah right!
Trust me, I’ve done this before…..yeah right!

Some more brilliant examples… yeah right.

We also had a great time using their billboard in the back where you could build your own:

Shout out to my dolphins!

Getting caught, acting normal.

There’s a 90% chance Scott actually saw this… Yeah right.

Super bummed about spending the day drinking beer… Let’s say it together, shall we: “Yeah right!”

Rae and I spent a good portion of the day at Tui before we started back on the Old Up Down (which is what we called our whole trip since we went back and forth across the country so often) and headed south on the thermal explorer highway, or the self-named explorer highway, or the nonthermal highway. There were a lot of beautiful highways. 

On our way to Wellington, we laughed about the rules of the New Zealand roads we’d grown accustomed to like learning what a Spillway is or a give-way versus yielding. Oh, and the crazy drivers. At one point on the trip, we’d seen a car tailgating a truck so closely that the car’s bumper was literally underneath the truck. Seemed safe…yeah right!  But, we also remembered how when Rachelle and I were at the gas station, the car in front of us was being an idiot — I was frustrated so I honked my horn, and the passenger got out. Very calmly, the passenger said, “I understand why you might be frustrated” and explained the situation. It was still really annoying, but Rachelle and I were ULTA impressed with how calmly this man handled my road rage.  I would love to take some more life lessons from him….and I mean that.

Getting along well in Wellington

When we finally made it to Wellington, we headed to a museum with trippy, indigenous art including paint drips on the wall. After, we drove along the coast, ate a chocolate fish that was more chocolate than fish, and went to Carlucci land, which was just a place full of rust, junk, and miniature golf.

Art-ppliances

Art + Rust = Golf

That night, we wanted to find a cool spot for the full super moon, so we found some Couchsurfers to hang out with.  It was interesting but, unfortunately, where we wound up, there was a tree, fence, and clouds in our way.  We’d seen it partly full last night though, so it wasn’t too much of a tragedy.

Pretty SUPER

Bonus reason it also wasn’t a tragedy:  We had fun hanging out with our very kind and very local Couchsurfers (Hana, Matt, Danika, Brianna, and Aidan). Everyone hugged us when we got there (and when we left, we’d tried to visit one of the girls at BP, where she worked, but she wasn’t there that day).

Hanging with our new friends under a Super Moon.

We all shared some drinks, talked about the Super Moon, and participated in a bit of culture exchange. Matt also mentioned that festival I had talked about earlier — the one with the first sunrise in the world.  It’s called Gisbourne.  At this festival, apparently, they play R&B, and usually about 30,000 people attend. Right, so, apparently I didn’t react properly when Matt first told me the numbers so I had to redo it……30,000!!  That VERY BIG (for NZ). WOW!!!!! 

Rachelle and I had a great time, and thanks to her bragging, I even got to chat in Jamaican Patois.  We told the Couchsurfers how much we loved their country– “you have volcanoes, forests, mountains, oceans… What’s not to love?!”
Hana responded with, “Yeah, we have everything but nightlife.” Touche.

This group then taught us the correct NZ response to “How many drinks did you have?”
Proper answer: “Just a quiet one in town.”

Towards the end of the night, I received a compliment that I didn’t know I wanted. Matt told me that his best friend’s name was Sam.  Goodness do I love the words best friend.  TRIGGERED! 

After spending the evening with our hosts, Rachelle and I settled into bach ready for a good night’s sleep under the gorgeous super moon, which we couldn’t see completely, but which we knew was there, so it was awesome just the same.

Here’s to a quiet one in town,
‘mi