Auckland to Wellington - the Overlander experience

More glorious weather... as Crowded House sings "Take the weather with you..." I have been quite lucky with the weather so far and I just hope that it continues, especially as I head to the South Island on Monday, Feb 22, 2010 - via the Bluebridge ferry service.

On Thursday morning (just this past week) I had to be up early and head to the Britomart Train Station in Auckland by 7:00am - of course in true Nathan fashion I was early by 30 minutes. Not an hour of the day that I have been seeing that much of while I've been travelling - sigh the life of a backpacker/cyclist... actually I'm usually up by 7:30am, but not already packed and on the road or on a train.

The train journey was of epic proportions. It is called the Overland train and departs at 7:30am and arrives 12 hours later in Wellington - that is if you are lucky. The train is fairly comfortable, heaps of leg room, mind you I don't quite understand the point of overhead shelves on trains/buses that cannot hold more than a coat or lightweight objects. So as we left Auckland I promptly fell asleep listening to music and ignoring suburb upon suburb (I did open my eyes to once again see Manurewa where my cycling journey had commenced).

Unlike Via Rail in Canada if you want a drink or food you have to go to the beverage car or the "buffet service" as they referred to it. Lucky for me I had packed snacks and enough water to put out a small fire (if needed). However then the allure of the food called to my stomach... just past the National Park. I should've ignored them. Not because the food was awful, it's just that the series of events surrounding the purchase of the food was probably one of my least favourite experiences in NZ. The ladies operating the train were well...ummm... how do you say it.... BITCHES. They weren't friendly, they had attitude and none of them even had nice hair (the Canadian drama series E.N.G. from the 1990's comes to mind - "I don't like your attitude..." countered with "well I don't like your hair") Poor comment and I apologize if I've offended anyone.

In short what happened was I went to pay for my food and drink with my credit card. It didn't go through, so they swiped it again... It's not that I didn't have the money - it is that the card information is send via mobile phone to the credit card company and as it turns out the part of the journey that I was in was well without service. Anyway, I asked for proof that neither transaction went through... thinking this wouldn't be a difficult request to fulfill, and trust me I asked politely.

Sidenote: Considering I'm on holiday and won't see my actual bills for sometime... it would be nice to know that I haven't been charged 3 times for substandard food.

Anyway, my request - although simply was returned with a comment from the lady "Adrian" was her name - actually it was made to her colleague stating that "this gentlemen thinks we're out to rip him off..." Let's just say more words were exchanged. I paid cash walked back to my seat only to realize that they had sold me the wrong thing. ARRGGHH!

Okay... so that was boring and long.

Fun parts of the journey... having to slow down because the track was too hot? what? didn't quite understand what that meant... and I mean SLOW.

Arrived in the Capital about 33 minutes late and guess what it poured down. Nothing like cycling in a strange city trying to find your pre booked accommodation in the rain. I suppose I am relaxed as I saw the whole ordeal as an adventure.

Wellington has been GREAT so far - went and explored the Bays, even took a quick dip in the ocean - well up to my knees - it was cold. I've seen the Botanical Gardens and the cable car. I must say that having my T1 (aka the bike) along with me has been great as I can pretty much go wherever I want... tomorrow I'm checking out Te Papa (Our Place) National Museum. And then one more night before I cross to the South Island.