More Wellington

I spent a good two to three hours here and eventually when my feet couldn’t take it anymore gave in and went back to town to listen to some Jazz in a pub whilst having some dinner. The pub was packed I have to say and it was a lovely day so people were sitting outside on the grassy square. The Jazz was the Traditional kind which is not my favourite by any means but very enjoyable all the same and as always the band was of the silver haired variety. After their three sets I decided it was time to make my way back to my digs and walked. I didn’t let the Sat Nav fool me this time, I had its number, and kept on the same road. It was a long walk after a busy day and I was ready to hit the hay when I got in. However my host kept me chatting for a while, we had an interesting conversation about writing travel blogs, he and his wife travel for about three months a year now the have reached a certain age, and he writes about his travels.


I then started suffering from indigestion and was awake until about 4am, the next morning I still couldn’t shake it so decided to take it easy for the day, did some writing and slept a bit. But that evening I decided I had to go out, so took myself out to dinner in the local area to an Italian restaurant recommended by my hosts. The waitress put me in the back room with a view of the washer upper in the kitchen! Old woman on her own syndrome, she said it will be quiet for you here. I wasn’t in any mood to make a fuss but there were plenty of other tables in there as it was empty! I ordered my food and a carafe of wine, well why not! The main course was ok, and so was the wine, by now there were more people in there but the service was slow. I finally got served again and asked for cheese and biscuits, the cheese had clearly just come out of the fridge. Oh well. But the final straw was the waitress who just kept ignoring me when clearly I had finished. Eventually I lost it and asked her if she could serve me rather than cleaning the table next to me, she said I don’t understand, so I said in rather a loud voice well can I just have my bill please. The owner who was also the chef and was watching this unfold came over and asked me what was the matter. So I told him about the terrible service I had had all evening and he took my bill and tore it up. He listened and was extremely apologetic, I felt quite sorry for him in the end because he had lost three staff and this girl was new and he recognised she wasn’t up to scratch. Off home to recount the tale to my hosts, the wife had come home that day so we had a bit of a chat but I had to be up early for my taxi as I was catching the early ferry to Picton on the South Island. So my stay in Wellington had been very short and I hadn’t really done much, and I have to say I wasn’t really taken with it. But I hadn’t also had the time to explore properly so I shouldn’t be too harsh on it. Oh well that’s the first two weeks of New Zealand done, I wonder what South Island will bring?