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Last night's dinner ended up being at a Speights Ale House within walking distance from our hotel for the night. Blue and Gold was the choice for half the table (again), with Calamari Rings, Black Cherry Chicken, and Chicken Parcels rounding out the 6. The mystery of the Outback Jack is the same as Miss Popularity was solved when the bar girl at the hotel downstairs stated that they aren't the same program, but the dude who hosts is in both. Or something. That was about as much *reality* TV I could stand watching for any stretch of time in any case. I don't watch that much TV at home, so coming to NZ to watch TV wasn't something I was particularly interested in (:
Post food, there was more poker, I chose to sit out of the hands because after yesterday morning's effort at Picton waiting for the ferry, where I lost on the best hand I had for the day (a straight, beaten by a higher straight), I figured that playing gameboy was probably going to be less frustrating *grin* ... although I'm currently up to a bit I don't know what to do next, so I might have to look up some stuff... Guru G played though, and she wiped everyone off the table. Lumpy may or may not have been completely confused by G's playing style (:
Since we discovered that there were no toasters or microwaves in our rooms at this place, out for breakfast was going to be our choice for the day. 7 days after our last McDonalds meal (breakfast at the airport for some of us), we had McDonalds breakfast in Johnsonville, a suburb just outside of the centre of Wellington. G's assessment of the Hotcakes here: Better than in Melbourne (: Nearly Pancake Parlour standard, considering they don't have a Pancake Parlour here to compare with ... She's also wanting to campaign for the BLT bagel for breakfast. M34tb4LL and Droidy thought that the coffee was different, but not necessarily in a better or worse way than the coffee at a Melbourne McDonalds.
Currently, Squirt is providing aural entertainment in the form of MP3s from a DVD courtesy of M34tb4LL and Guru G. I'm being hugely impressed by Squirt's battery lasting power - on super battery saving mode we can get nearly 5 hours out of Squirt, on normal mode, probably 3.5 hours. For the moment, wireless networking has been switched off, to squeeze more power out of the thing ... Felton the soft toy puppy that Guru G and M34tb4ll packed with them does some good muppet dancing, head banging, and crowdsurfing in the Warthog Mark 2, while we're trying to keep the signal from Squirt and the FM transmitter on a frequency that doesn't clash with a local broadcast ...
The trip from Wellington to Taupo is about 5 hours or so ... not a long drive for us by any stretch of the imagination. We have rain, low cloud cover on the hilly things we're passing, and more traffic than we've seen for a while ... One thing we've noticed so far is that there seem to be a whole bunch of fish and chip places that are also Chinese takeaways here... not quite sure what the logic is for that, but we haven't tried any of these places yet. New Zealand car numberplates also speak 1337. We've seen D415Y, CIA0 (that would be a zero, not a letter O), CH4LET (although the E should be a 3 for full 1337 experience), and ASL ... although I don't think the last one counts as that was just a normal numberplate un-customised... and perhaps not intentional. G was the only one who noticed that there's been a whole heap of Queen Anne's Lace growing about everywhere ... but I think the rest of us didn't know what the plant thingy was called ...
We're stopped in Otaki, for a short driver change and smoke break. G is requesting for no more mountain ranges, Droidy hopes for the same so she can play gameboy without getting dizzy. Current estimated lunch stop is at Foxton, where there is New Zealand's only Dutch Flour Mill ... and an information booth, where there is potential for sheltered stuff... There are payphones here, but it seems that the majority of the phones are phonecard only, which for people who are carrying mobile phones with international roaming turned on is not as useful when there aren't that many situations where we both don't have coverage and need to make a phone call ... I don't think it needs to be mentioned that there are a lot of sheep. A metric fuckload, if you will. Gary the esky/chillie-bin is doing well, and got restocked this morning at a Countdown supermarket instead of a New World, as it has been the few times beforehand.
Oh yes, today is Valentine's Day ... Decay and I are ignoring it for the moment, like we did last year, when we were going to see UNKLE Sounds and looking for a bite to eat prior to the gig... what's that, a set menu tonight, for 70.00 ....! Oh, red paper, Valentine's Day menu ... right. Foxton has a place that is "The Home of Crispy Bacon" ... Mmmmm... bacon ... everything goes better with bacon ...
a little while later
Our stop in Foxton wasn't for lunch in the end - it was still raining, a little early for lunch food after a late-ish breakfast, and there wasn't enough shelter to set up Gary ... we did visit De Molen, the Flour milling windmill though. We climbed up the very steep stairs, and took a look at each level, where the different steps involved in flour milling took place. At the top was a slightly crazy man who was trained in the art of flour milling by some dudes from the Netherlands. He regaled us with stories... of why millers may not go to heaven but they won't be going to hell either ... and how the souls of dead millers were likely to be roaming about because of this not going to hell thing. They are, apparently, the cause of all mischief in Europe ... We also had a chat to the lady downstairs at the ticket counter to go upstairs to visit the crazy man, she apologised for the weather, so we apologised for bringing it with us from Queenstown ...
Currently, we're in the car from Foxton to the next place, that next place being Bulls. G tells me this by making the shape of bull horns. For a place named Bulls, I was sort of expecting more punny things ... There are really quite a few Bridge Sts floating around in this place... each of the rivery streamy things that have bridges is numbered, which would be really useful if your car had broken down in an area with bunches of bridges and you needed to ring someone to get them to come over and help you out of a pinch ... The question is posed, are there more Bridge Streets or Station Streets in New Zealand?
A while after that ...
We stopped at Hunterville, which is apparently the Huntaway capital of the world. I'm not quite sure about what a Huntaway is, but there you go. We had icecream, talked to the lady in the icecream and smoothie/fruit shake store about her upcoming trip to Australia, and we looked at a shop full of stuff... The weather was again doing its weathery thing. New Zealand does know how to turn on some rain when it puts its mind to it ... We've had small forests of lego trees, and a sign for Peach Teats, which the cows love, apparently. That, along with Beaver Liquor have been keeping us amused. We are rather easily amused at times, aren't we? *grin* New Zealand is home to some very determined trees, that choose to grow out of cliffs and still point what's upwards, and not perpendicular to the surface of the cliff. There's also some really determined sheep, who choose to eat very determined grass that grows on cliffsides as well... some of the sheep were actually leaning on their sides to the cliff to stay what might be deemed sort of upright ... Ooh ... a turnoff to Mokai Gravity Canyon ... sounds like a bunch of fun, doesn't it?
A bit later than that...
Well, that was an interesting diversion, wasn't it? Gravity Canyon ended up being ... a Bungy location! There was also a flying fox there, but as soon as Decay and I found out that we could do a tandem bungy, it was on ... Lumpy, Decay and I signed our waiver forms, got weighed (48kg today for Droidy, 108kg for Decay, 127kg for Lumpy), and then made our way to the jumping platform, where we were checked, and double-checked for all the loopy strappy things we had on us. Decay and I went first, with Decay doing the propelling because my feet weren't actually doing much touching of the ground... Jumping tandem was definitely like a falling hug. This jump had absolutely NOTHING to do with Valentines day, no matter how much people might think it. *grin* ... We were lowered onto the raft on the Rangatiki river below the jump, where we had an underneath view of Lumpy's jump from the platform while our leg shackles were being removed, and the bungy cords were being raised back up. Lumpy's jump looked really kewl ... well, what I could see of it, which was lots of blurry thing moving ... that's what I get for not being able to wear glasses while jumping. While Lumpy was being lowered onto the raft, Decay and I got chairlifted back up to the bridge where we jumped from, and I got to retrieve my glasses and sandals ... I now have a T-shirt and a bit of bungy cord from this random diversion we took on our way to Taupo. I don't have a T-Shirt from the Nevis jump cos the T-shirts didn't interest me there... Guru G says we kind of freaked her out jumping off the platform like that, but she was glad that we made our way back alive and awake. *grin* ... Em is still hoping thatwe'll make our way back in one piece, or two really big pieces.
I should mention, that prior to jumping, we watched a raincloud sweep across around the cliff nearby to the reception building ... Grumbler decided at the start of the rain to run back to the Warthog to retrieve his wet weather jacket... just as the big part of the rain storm came through. Irony's a bitch hey, Grumbler? *grin* Watching that rainstorm from indoors was indeed kewl ... just the way that it came around so quickly was quite amazing.
Two hours to Taupo, and Droidy needs to have more internet access ... credit card needs to have some money put on it to make it feel better. EFTPOS only cards are not too fun to use around here - out of the ATM is fine, but EFTPOS doesn't seem to go through for purchases ...
Taupo arrived on us like a Lakes Entrance ... lots of motels on the road alongside the largest lake in New Zealand, and we were wondering about the pizza place with a giraffe and an elephant on the front, so much, that we completely missed the hotel we were supposed to check in at ... Anyways ... after having driven down the road that our hotel was going to be off, and passing the Taupo Bungy and stuff, we decided that having the hotel next to a quarry wasn't quite what we would've expected... so we turned back, to find our hotel right next to the pizza place with an elephant and giraffe out the front. We checked in, asked for recommendations on where to get some old-fashioned fish and chips ... and forgot that it was actually 8pm on a weeknight and that the only places left serving fish and chips would be restaurants ... We also got a small bunch of things marked onto a map of things to do tonight, tomorrow while we were in Taupo, and then driving on our way to Rotorua and on to Auckland.
G and I perused the motel guide folder, and found a place called Hell, serving pizzas that sounded good and were of decent price. We decided that a drive down to the shops would be a good idea, not only to gauge the size of a large pizza, but to see what else would be open during normal opening hours tomorrow ... or in case some other food caught our eye. Speights Ale House was going to be an absolute last option here... We arrived at the door of Hell, and picked out our pizzas ... we also purchased an evil rubber ducky (actually, we bought two - one for G and M34tb4LL, and one for Droidy and Decay), and a beanie with devil horns, for Droidy. The nectar of the night was Coke, so G traipsed off to the Golden Arches to purchase some non coke beverage. Upon bringing back some non-coke beverages, it was discovered that the postmix for the fanta was kind of ... wrong and undrinkable, so G and M34tb4LL gave up on the fanta .. pizzas arrived... mmm.... yum.
NA - Droidy only ate two slices of pizza in total because no Droidy-sized slices were provided like they were at Winnie Bagoes ...
Overall, big points for carrying a theme through the entire line of food, for providing kewl merchandise to purchase - I mean, come on, how could you resist an evil rubber ducky?! Or a beanie with devil horns on it? Well, you could, but then you wouldn't be eating food from Hell... There are many axes of evil listed as being a part of Hell, and you can order online. Unfortunately, they don't deliver to Melbourne, but as far as a Piccolinos beating pizza goes, they don't have it. For tasty pizzas of the non-pretentious differently flavoured variety, this place has it. Double extra happy points for giving us the option to have a chicken, camembert and cranberry pizza, a year since we first had such a creation in Melbourne. Lumpy says it was kewl... G says the staff were suitably groovy with requisite body piercings - girly girl had many facial piercings, we got free light-up fridge magnets, and we got a couple of clean boxes because there is a cut-out and fold together of a coffin, in which to put any left-over pieces of pizza for later midnight sacrificial offerings... or something. We actually got the last four pizzas they were making for the night, the group after us were only able to order pastas and other non-pizza-related items... Decay was going to get a T-shirt, but they were sold out of the size he wanted, plus we were going to get a big rubber ducky, but they ran out of those as well ...
We're in a double suite tonight, mini townhouse thingy with a living area downstairs, and two bedrooms upstairs. The Grumbler and the Lumpy are in a two bed suite thingy, so instead of having three rooms like we've had for most of this trip, we have just two for the night.
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