Copyright ©
Carey Evans.
Last modified: Wed, 11 February 2004.
A few weeks ago, I applied for holidays for the week at the end of November and the beginning of December. From one point of view, this was spectacularly bad timing, since we’re installing a new network around the country, and trying to upgrade to Domino R5 as well. I’m trying hard to give a damn, but it’s not working.
Unlike the start of the year, I’ve actually planned ahead for these holidays, and worked out some travel and accommodation. I’m going to spend half my time off away from Christchurch, mostly in Picton. I catch the Coastal Pacific train from the Christchurch railway station at the terribly early hour of 7:00 am on Thursday morning, and take five hours to travel to Picton, arriving just in time for lunch.
I haven’t made any plans about what to do once I’m there, but I’ll probably take in a wine trail, or go walking up a hill somewhere. I’m going to be staying at a bed-and-breakfast, at a place called ‘House of Glenora’.
On Saturday, I have to get up at an even worse time to catch the Interislander ferry for a day trip to Wellington. The ferry leavs at 5:30 am, so I have to be at the terminal at 5:00 am! I haven’t made any firm plans for that day, but they’ll probably include a trip to Te Papa, meeting a potential Debian developer to sign each other’s GnuPG keys, and trying to catch up with some friends who are now based in Wellington. All this before 5:30 pm, when the ferry returns to Picton.
On Sunday morning, I get a bit of time to recover from Saturday, before catching the train after lunch and taking another five hours to return to Christchurch, finally arriving at 7:00 pm before I go back to work on the following day.
For those of you from outside New Zealand, the national elections for the New Zealand government were held today. Those of you inside New Zealand may have noticed without me needing to point it out.
That’s probably even less interesting than what I did today, though. By the time anyone reads this, the results will be out except for a few seats where the special votes will make a difference, and we have to wait another few weeks. Either way, we’ll probably have a Labour coalition government.
As part of starting to recover from work, I slept in until after noon. After a while, I went down to the Arts Centre, to buy lunch (lamb curry on rice), and to cast my votes. I spent the rest of the day doing nothing much — browsing in a few bookstores, and grocery shopping.
I decided to make things more interesting tonight by cooking something new for a change — fish and chips! I’ve never actually cooked this myself before, but I bought some red cod at the supermarket — it was on special — then battered it and fried it. I used a beer batter on the fish, and you only need a bit of beer for that, so I had to drink the rest of the can or it’d go to waste. I learnt two things about frying fish in batter: make more batter than you need, and use more oil than you need. I should do better next time.
I didn’t sleep in quite as long this morning. I got up at about ten, and turned on the TV to discover that TVNZ seems to have realised that New Zealand music is actually pretty good, and it’s worthwhile putting on videos from bands like Stellar*, Tadpole, Zed, and even She’s Insane along with all the music videos from bands I don’t like. I also saw the video for Fiona McDonald’s ‘Sin Again’. Phwoar, or something.
For lunch my parents and brother came into town and we went down to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens to have lunch at the cafe there. My parents though tit looked a bit flash once we got there — ‘please wait to be seated’ — so we then went off to the Canterbury museum coffee shop. My parents must have been impressed, because they didn’t come out saying they thought they could do better.
I haven’t accomplished much else today. The weather wasn’t any good, so I just stayed inside and fiddled with stuff on the computer. I have found out about a neat trick for my cellphone. By setting the Cell Broadcast option to channel 50, it tells me that the transmitter it’s using is ‘Chch CBD’. Occasionally, without me moving it an inch, it changes it’s mind and decides to use the ‘CHCH South’ tower instead. I don’t suppose there’s actually much point to it.
Yes, it’s really 1:30 am as I write this. My body hasn’t quite been running in sync with the real world for a few weeks, and it’s gotten worse since I’ve been on holiday. This doesn’t look good for getting up on Thursday or Saturday morning.
The solution, I’ve decided, is to skip a bit less than a day by staying up this morning and some time today, then going to bed early tonight. Hopefully this means I won’t be jet lagged for the rest of the holiday. And as a bonus, I should get to see the sunrise for the first time since the winter.
As for what I’ve been doing with the holiday: Monday was a bit of a waste. The weather wasn’t good; the sky was overcast, and the wind was cold. I managed to go to the library to get some books out, so I could take a few with me to Picton in case the weather really sucks there too, but I read two of them before I went to bed.
Tuesday was better. I still slept in and had the feeling I’d wasted some of the day. For lunch, I went out to my parent’s cafe. (Subtle plug: Puccini’s Coffee House in Peerswick Mall at Church Corner!) Then I spent a bit of time looking around at all the changes at the Bush Inn Centre mall, like the big new Bond and Bond shop. We got back to Puccini just in time to help restock all the drinks in the fridges.
I spent the rest of the day with my parents, then got back home at about 11:30 pm.
Well, the sunrise was actually pretty unspectacular. The sky slowly got brighter, the birds started singing, and suddenly it was day instead of night. It looks like it should be a nice day, though.
So here I am, sitting in the train as it pulls away from Christchurch. I think it’s a while since I’ve been on a train — most of my travel over long distances has been by plane. This method of travel offers better scenery and cheaper fares, though.
It’s remarkable how fast the train’s been going so far, and we’re still in the city. The thought of just what it must take to stop this much metal might just make me more careful driving across railway crossings.
At least, the nearest Vodafone cellphone transmitter is ‘Waipara’. I’ve qot my cellphone sitting on the table letting me know where I am before they announce it over the intercom. Which they just did.
I’m writing these notes on my PalmPilot, which apparently makes me quite recognisable. A regular at my parents’ coffee shop just recognised me because Dad told him to look for someone with a cellphone and a little computer thing. Hmm.
The train had been travelling above the beach, before a big hill got in the way. Now we’ve just come out of a long tunnel to see the ocean again.
According to the announcement when we reached the coast, there should be seals around, and maybe even dolphins, so I’ll have to keep an eye out for them. All I’ve seen so far are a few shags, and a heron.
We’re just starting off again from the railway station at Kaikoura. I think this was a welcome stop for some people, who were off the train and lighting up a cigarette before it had finished moving.
The mountains up above Kaikoura are looking very impressive, with a fresh coating of snow. It’s not really very warm at the moment, but at least the sun’s shining and the sky is blue. Looking south to Christchurch, the sky is not blue. Instead there’s a big bank of cloud, which I hope isn’t coming this way.
I didn’t see any seals on the way here, unless some of those vaguely seal-shaped rocks were actually really lazy seals. I’ve seen them on those rocks before from a car, so that doesn’t really matter.
Picton’s having really great weather today, and has been recently too when Christchurch was gloomy and overcast, so hopefully it’ll continue as well. There’s a lot of scenery around here that I have to see.
So far I’ve seen two places that offer Internet web browsing, so I could keep up with my email and the websites I watch if I wanted too. Must... resist....
To fill in Thursday afternoon, I’m doing bits of the walks in Victoria Domain. At the moment I’ve reached a place called Bob’s Bay, which is supposed to be 40 minutes from Picton. I think I did it in a lot less. This holiday’s supposed to be relaxing me, but I’m still rushing around faster than I need to.
Hopefully I’ll manage to relax a bit tomorrow. I’m going on a wine trail, including some arts and craft type things for other people on the bus. The itenary itself is rather relaxed at this time of year.
I haven’t said anything yet about the place that I’m staying. It’s a bed and breakfast in an old, big house. Although I’ve only been here for a few hours, I’m very impressed, especially with what I’m getting for just $55 a day.
The room I’m in has a great view out over the harbour. I’ll try to remember sometime to take a photo of it. Since my camera was ruined by the batteries in it leaking, I bought myself a ‘disposable’ camera from a chemist. I don’t expect the same quality as a real camera, but I should get something, and it will still be better than any digital camera in my price range.
Just leaving Cloudy Bay, where a tilt-slab building is magically appearing in front. I tried three of their wines, starting with two methode traditionalles. The first was a recent bottling, and while it was nice, I don’t think it was so much nicer than Lindauer, for example, for the price.
The second was a 1995 vintage, which was very nice. It’s probably worth it for a special occasion.
Last, I tried a sweet desert wine. It might have been good with something sweet, but by itself I didn’t really like it.
Second stop was a jade, paua shell, etc. shop. It was quite touristy, and not really me, although what they do to mussel shell is impressive.
Next stop should be more interesting though.
Yummmm! There are some very delicious liqueurs etc. here, and I definitely recommend a visit. I spent a bit of money here, in particular on a coffee liqueur for myself. It’s supposed to go well in coffee or Coke, and it’s nice just on its own.
You could get in a bit more trouble trying everything at Prenzels, compared to just doing wine tastings.
One drink that I will want to remember is the ‘Stiff Richard’, which is a butterscotch schnapps, with Butterscotch Cream on top in a shot glass. I get the impression they’re not allowed to say the cream is like Baileys.
We had lunch in the restaurant at Hunter’s, which was very nice. They did a good espresso too. I tried a few of their whites, and decided to play it safe and buy a sauvignon blanc for a bit less than $20.
Immediately after, we went to Selaks. They have some very nice wines under a different name, but I bought a very nice 1999 riesling instead, one of the only dry wines I like. Given how little I drink wine, it’s going to get a chance to age.
The last place I went to was a place that does fruit preserves and things like that. I did consider buying some as presents, but the same thing is available around Christchurch, like from the Arts Centre, so I decided it wasn’t really worth it.
Overall, I think the trip was worth it. Although not all of it appealed to me, and some of the people on it weren’t so much interested in the wine tasting, the driver was very good at describing the area and the places we were going, and it was very relaxing and enjoyable.
Since getting back, I checked the messages on my cellphone. I had three from work; the second saying that the first had been fixed, and the third that I still have to follow up. That’ll make the fourth time I’ve had to talk to someone while I’ve been on holiday.
This is a really awful time to have to be up in the morning. There’s quite a few more people here waiting for the ferry, but nothing like enough to fill the Arahura.
It’s very dark outside at the moment, so I should get a chance to see the sunrise from the ferry. And the conditions are supposed to be moderate, so I should even be able to enjoy the voyage.
I hope there’s somewhere to buy a coffee on board.
It was quite easy to tell when the ferry entered Cook Strait: instead of a very calm voyage, things started to move around a bit more. It’s still reasonably calm though.
We’re just now passing under the very noticeable line in the clouds marking the front between nice Picton weather, and what looks like a very gloomy day in Wellington. Hopefully the front’s moving north and taking the fine weather with it.
It’s so nice to get chance to sit down again. I’ve been on my feet most of the day since I arrived on the ferry this morning, and most of that was at Te Papa.
The clouds that the ferry passed on the way in were not on their way to Picton; they made up a warm front making its way north to Wellington, so once they caught up with me it was a glorious day to be out.
Although there is a bus available to take ferry passengers into town to the railway station, I looked at a map and decided that since I didn’t have any luggage, I might as well walk. It didn’t make much difference, either, since I got to the station at the same time as the bus anyway.
The first thing to do today was to find some public Internet access terminals to make sure most of my plans for the day were intact. This was actually harder than in Picton, especially when the first one I found didn’t open until 10:00. The second try was successful, though, and nothing important had come up.
From there I went to Te Papa, although I got a little lost. I got my first clue that I might not be heading for the waterfront when I noticed I was walking uphill, but got back on track by the clever trick of walking downhill again.
The wind’s come up since going out onto the harbour, and the weather seems to be closing in, so I’m continuing inside.
To start with, I met Andrew to talk a bit about Linux, Debian and him becoming a Debian developer. He’s got some packages with his own programs already done, but until the new maintainer process starts up again next year, I’ll upload his packages in a similar way to the sponsorship scheme.
After phoning Sarah to sort out when to meet her, I got a call from David who’d finally had time to read his email and get my note that I was in Wellington. He showed up a bit later, and we talked for a while about our jobs, computer networks, and other things to catch up after the last time I saw him, AFAIR, was at University.
I could have gone to have a look around David’s work, but...
As arranged earlier, I met Sarah and Paul at 1:30. It’s a long time since I last saw her, so it was very good to see her again, and we talked about a range of things for about an hour. She had a few suggestions about how I could spend the rest of the day, but I couldn’t really see the point in travelling all the way to another city just to shop, and in the end I decided it would be a pity to go to Te Papa from Christchurch without seeing the special display; in this case the ‘Ancient Voices’ display of Greek, Etruscan and Roman artefacts.
This holiday to Picton and Wellington has definitely worth it. I’ve had a chance to relax and destress in Picton. And meeting old friends has helped me to destress further, and cheer up a bit too after working too hard and not sleeping enough got me down.
I’d been planning to do something this morning like going out on one of the sight-seeing boats for a couple of hours, but I think I’m all holidayed out now after yesterday. It’s nice to just sit here and do nothing until the train leaves this afternoon. It’s a very warm, sunny day in Picton today, with nothing to disturb it but mating seagulls.
The ferry trip back yesterday night was as uneventful and smooth as the trip to Wellington. I didn’t feel like doing anything for the rest of the night, and unless I’ve missed something, Picton doesn’t seem to have much to do at night anyway.
I finished writing yesterday without saying much about what I saw at Te Papa. There’s so much there I don’t think I saw it all, although I did at least had a quick look at most of it, and got a good look at some of the exhibits.
When I was having a look at the Passports display about migrants to New Zealand, there was one bit that had included the sounds of a ship. That must have been too soon after I got off the ferry, because I was certain that the floor was moving like it’s deck.
The ‘Ancient Voices’ display was very impressive, and I didn’t quite get to see all of it properly before I had to leave for the ferry. It’s a big exhibition, with mostly everyday objects that have survived 2000 years or more, such as oil lamps, including one that should probably be rated R18, and amphorae like one that was a more stylish version of a certificate saying “World’s Greatest Drinker”.
Well, I never really completed these entries, but after such a full holiday I was quite worn out. Unlike my train trip on the way to Picton, this time the train was completely full. I managed to doze off a few times, and I must have been sitting the wrong way, because I managed to bruise my ulnar nerve, making the side of my hand numb and tingly for the next two days. (Maybe I shouldn’t have looked that up on the web; there’s a whole lot of things that can go wrong with it.)
I should really go on holiday more often. It helped me to stop stressing so much about both work and personal matters, and someone even told me that I was looking more relaxed.
On a slightly different note, I think this is the first time that I’ve found my mobile phone really useful, except maybe when I locked myself out without my keys, but with my mobile. It would have been a lot harder trying to arrange to meet everyone just by email, or from a public phone at the museum. It would have been even harder if they hadn’t had mobiles too! I wonder how long it will be before it becomes realistic to only own a mobile and not a landline phone? The only thing I really need my normal phone for is for my Internet connection, and because my cellphone is turned off sometimes for recharging. A cable or ADSL Internet connection would solve the first problem, and a spare battery would solve the second.
I suppose that’s it for now — Y2K is nearly upon us, so I should have something to write about that as soon as the world’s computers and I recover.