Wow. A lot has happened since my last post.
I am now in Nelson, on the northern coast of the south island in New Zealand. Today was very windy and a bit rainy and cold, so I pretty much just stayed at the hostel all day, slept a bit, read a bit, and talked to other people traveling. I also spent the $2 to switch out of the 12-bed dorm where 5 different people were snoring last night into a quad with its own bathroom. $2. I felt pretty stupid when I found that out.
Back to Wellington. It was just awesome to hang out with Eli and Jasmine… they were so gracious with their hospitality, especially when they have so much coming up so soon… leaving NZ for a trip to Oz, then off to Portland all in the next month.
On Sunday I hiked up to Mt. Victoria lookout (which is an amazing view of Wellington and the surrounding areas… think of it like Mt. Washington only with a 360 degree view. I ran into Frank up there, the german guy I met in Sydney, totally out of the blue. He told me that he and his friend Tim were going to take the ferry the next morning down to the south island. I thought it would be a good idea to do that, too, so later in the day I booked that ticket and my ticket from Melbourne to Cairns. (that’s going to be on the 24th)
So funny story about Wellington, but you’ll have to ask me individually. Too embarrassing/gross to post on a public site. 
Anyway, one of the best streets in the world is in Wellington. Right up there with Telegraph or the Haight or E. Carson or whatever that street in Adams Morgan is or (name your favorite hip/trendy street). It’s called Cuba street, or the Cuba mall. So many cafes and bars, none of which is global or commercial. I loved it. You could go somewhere new every day and it would take you a long time to experience most of it.
Sunday night we went to get Mexican food. Mexican is always the thing I start to crave when I’m traveling. I don’t know why. This place we went was pretty decent, but they didn’t have alcohol, so my margarita craving still hasn’t been satisfied.
Monday morning I woke up a little late, grabbed a bus down to the Wellington rail station, and I thought the Interislander ferry left from there. Nope. It took me a few minutes to figure out that the ferry left from a place like 2 miles away. It was already 9:10 and I was supposed to have checked in at 9 for the 9:30 departure. Yikes. I RAN out in front of the station, got the first taxi, told him to step on it … and got there just barely in time, mostly because one of the boat’s motors wouldn’t start. Like father like son I suppose.
I found Frank and Tim on the ferry, and the next adventure started soon after we got off 3 hours later. It is a beautiful trip, by the way. The Marlborough Sounds are striking. We departed the ship and started discussing how best to get to Nelson. Bus tickets were $19. I had heard from someone in Queenstown that car rental places, if they need to have cars moved, will let you move their car for just the price of petrol. I asked around at a few places, and lo and behold there was a car one village over that needed to go to Nelson.
We paid $10 each for the trip to Blenheim, and then paid $3 each for the gas to Nelson. I drove. Very interesting driving on the left side of the road.
I ended up having to walk 8km or so from where I dropped it off though.
Gotta run! Time’s up.