What more could go wrong?

29 Oct – 1 Nov

Road Trip #3 Taupo – Wellington

I’ve always been a believer of the law of attraction. Like attracts like and you make your day by how you begin it. Jump out of bed with joyous anticipation for the new day and a remarkable day you’ll have. Get up on the wrong side of bed? Well, the day can only get worse. Unfortunately, it was the wrong side of the bed that morning.

I should have known the signs. The day quickly degenerated from one issue to another. First was the parking. Wellington has weird parking systems and it is darn expensive to park in the city. We found this cheap Wilson parking that cost $3 to park till midnight and another $3 to park till the next eve. This stupid system didn’t allow us to pay for the next day so we had to walk back at midnight to put another $3 in.

After sorting out the parking, we headed into town for a cabaret show that promised a fun night out of performances, drinks and canapés that was supposed to start at 6pm. We hit the town in my best dress & heels to check out the entertainment scene. “Oh, the show guys aren’t here yet. Do come back at 7.30pm” says the staff at the adjoining café. 7.30pm? That’s 1 ½ hours away and I didn’t plan to kill time walking around wellington in my fancy high boots.



My Charles & Keith boots


My feet were killing me by that time and I was SUPER cranky. We turned up at the club at 7.30pm and handed our tickets only to find out that the show was cancelled 2 weeks ago! Wtf? But we just bought the tickets a few days back! The lady at the door kept arguing that it was impossible for us to purchase it but heck. I had the receipts. Told her we drove 5 hours to see the bloody show and all she can say is she’ll refund our tickets. She even had the cheek to say we could’t go for the replacement show coz it was double of what we paid. Boy were we royally pissed.

After walking off in a huff we decided to cool down with a couple of beers in an Irish pub. Bought the first round with no problems but for the second, this young waiter asked for my ID. He refused to accept my Press ID and driver’s license and said that if I couldn’t produce any evidence that I’m of legal age, I am not even allowed to be on the premises. Fine. I won’t buy then. Sent Jerry to buy the drinks.

As we were happily enjoying our drinks, this idiotic punk came up to our table and whined “I told your gf that she can’t even be here on the premises if she doesn’t have ID!” Well, we already paid for our food and it’s not even here yet. You refund our money then. “No, you have to leave.” Then call your manager. Just then the manager walked passed, gave the punk a look and said leave us alone. The manager was the one who served me the first time. He was nice enough to say sorry that his staff is extremely ‘vigilant and take their job seriously’. Hmph! It’s one thing if I’m a rowdy young drunk demanding for rounds but if we’re decent paying customers, wtf is your problem then? Thank you for the compliment but I don’t think I look THAT young. What a day. And we had to get up before midnight to pay for parking.


Weta Studios - where Sir Peter Jackson's visions become reality



My Precious...

The next day was much better and we spent it exploring Te Papa Museum and Weta Studios – home of The Lord of the Rings. They showed that amazing work that goes on behind the scnes. Makes you appreciate the skills, time, effort and money that go into entertaining us for a mere 2 hours. Was a pity we couldn’t meet up with Campbell though coz of his exams and we had to go off that eve.