Hooray For Visitors

On our way back into Wellington for the weekend we were finally able to meet up with Barb and Murray, who are friends of Laura and Mike's from when they were living in NZ. I had met them once before when they were travelling in Toronto, so I was looking forward to seeing more familiar faces. They had us over to their house for dinner, which was just north of Wellington. We had an amazing meal with great company and we were sad that we had to cut it sort of short, but we had to pick up our special visitor at the airport. It was so nice of Barb and Murray to have us for dinner and it was so nice to catch up with them again!

Next, it was off to the airport to pick up PAIGE!!!!! Our friend from undergrad, Paige, was in Nelson doing some work for her PhD and was able to sneak away for a weekend and come meet us in Wellington. We were super pumped to have her come visit, so we could show her Wanda and a bit more of NZ, other than Nelson.

We picked her up and dropped all of our stuff off at our hostel and went out on the town for a couple of drinks and to try and watch some Olympics. We were in luck. We found an Irish bar just around the corner from our hostel that turned on the Olympics for us and we were able to watch Canada win 3 medals! We also got to catch up with a great friend who we hadn't seen in ages!

After a couple of hours we decided to head back to the hostel and get some sleep because we were going to wake up really early to watch the Canada-USA hockey game. Unfortunately, we were in a 6 person dorm that night and one of our roommates was a snorer. And not just any snorer, but the worst I"ve ever heard! Dave and I both tried to wake him up, but we was KO'd. It was probably the worst sleep I've had in my life because I honestly thought he was going to die.

By 5:30 we were all awake and ready to find a TV showing Olympics hockey...that was way harder to do then we originally thought! We ended up in an internet cafe, where we streamed the game live online. There were a couple other people in the internet cafe at the same time and I swear they were all there all night long gaming. It was kind of crazy to see. But, the 3 of us settled in and watched an awesome game. GO CANADA GO! It was a great way to start the day, with an awesome win!

Go Canada Go!

 

After the hockey game was over we had some coffee, showers, breakfast and then made our way to a little wine region just outside Wellington for the night. The drive there was good - the three of us in the front of Wanda, rocking out. When we got there we were able to settle into our little room before heading out wine tasting. At our second winery we managed to run into Gina and a few of her friends. I did know she was going to be there (she was the one who recommended Martinborough), but I didn't expect to be able to find her so easily! I think we went to about 6 wineries that day and had some delicious wine. By the end of the afternoon we were ready for another coffee and a little rest before heading out for dinner. We had an awesome Thai dinner with some more wine and then made our way back to our room at the caravan park. When we got back Paige was able to Skype with her BF, Toulch, so we got to meet him. I'm not sure if he'll remember much of the conversation because it was 2am after a night out drinking for him, but it was nice to have a chat with him.

The next morning started off a little rocky - not only because of the wine hangovers, but also because Paige couldn't find her visa. We searched the room again, looked all over the caravan grounds and then Paige went to ask the front desk if anyone had turned one in. And once again Paige has a horse shoe up her butt, because apparently the cleaning lady for the caravan park had found the visa on the side of the road heading into work that morning and picked it up. And if you could have seen/heard/felt how windy it was that morning, it was amazing that it hadn't blown away!

After our morning excitement we took Paiger on a bit of a drive around. We went to "the Pinnacles", which is a beautiful spot where they filmed a scene from the Lord of the Rings. We did a little hike around and saw some beautiful sights before heading back to Wellington. Once in Wellington we took her up the Mount Victoria lookout before dropping her back off at the airport to head back to Nelson.

Us in front of the Pinnacles

 

It was so awesome having a visitor from home. I don't think either of us thought we would while we were away, but it was such a nice surprise and we had an amazing weekend!

After we dropped Paige off at the airport we went back into Wellington and met up with Dave's cousin, Kristen, who lives in Wellington. Unfortunately her boyfriend Ronni couldn't make it because of work, but it was nice to meet up with Kristen at least. We had a nice coffee and chat and got to catch up on life since it has been a few years since Dave had seen her.

 

The next morning we had to do a Warrant of Fitness on Wanda. In New Zealand, on all cars over 6 years old, you have to do a WOF every 6 months to make sure they are road worthy. And, of course, we had to do one on Wanda just a week before we were trying to sell her...bad timing! We didn't think there would be many issues with her; she had driven so nicely for us for almost 2 months. It took a couple of hours for the WOF to be completed so in the meantime we went to Te Papa, which is a free museum in Wellington. It was awesome! We spent a few hours there, checking out the exhibits - so many of them were interactive, it was pretty cool! Then we got the dreaded phone call...

Apparently, Wanda had some rust on her A-frame and the windshield wipers were streaking so she failed her WOF. The guy said not to worry about the windshield wipers because he could change them for $8 for us. But we had to see a panel beater about the rust before he would pass her. So, off we went to a few panel beaters around the city. The first person we saw told us that he thought the rust was worse than visible and that it would cost $1500 to fix it. The next guys we went to said he could do it for $800. By now we were starting to feel really depressed! We decided to try one more place just to compare. This is when our angel came - Dave the Panel Beater came to our rescue and said he could touch it up for $100 and sign off on it because he understood that we didn't want to put a lot of effort or funds into it if we were just going to sell the car in a week. We said SOLD and he finished the car the next day for us!

While we were waiting for the work to be done we went to WETA, which is the studio where LOTR was made. We got to see a little movie about the making, as well as go on a tour to see some of the neat way they create the magic.

Bert, From The Hobbit

By the next day we had Wanda back, her WOF passed and we were off again from Wellington.

Off to a new part of the country to explore!

Thanks for reading

xoxo