For the first time in a few weeks, we got a taste of big city driving as we headed into central Wellington. We’ve been so used to the rural areas where there seems to be more roadworks than actual road.
Wellington actually reminded us of Cardiff in terms of both population and vibe. The water was super blue and crystal clear along the marina which is actually surprising given the whopping Cook Straight ferries that operate around the clock. Grace grabbed some veggie spring rolls (the asian food seems to be so good here) and we sat outside the Te Papa museum and watched a travelling circus act. We both thought it was shite. Put it this way, it would have been an instant buzz from Simon. Slight tangent but Mr Cowell is looking pretty terrible at the mo.
We thought the Te Papa Museum (NZ’s national museum) was great. We went to two exhibits on Maori culture and the countries origin. Polynesian navigators are thought to have discovered New Zealand in the 13th century, but (as per) it was officially ‘found’ in 1840 by a European. The exhibit had the Treaty of Waitangi printed in English and Maori opposite each other. On the 11th December 2023, protestors had spray painted out much of the English version, as the English translation poorly translates the meaning of authority and sovereignty (as a single, authoritative rule). The bits the protestors left unredacted clearly shared their views on the British monarchy (which we echo).
With Welly being a city and all, it was much easier to stay a short drive away in Lower Hutt. Coincidently this is where we drastically underestimated a hike a few days ago!
Truck Life
Without paying much attention, over the past fortnight we’ve actually become really efficient at living out of a truck. As mentioned before, it looks pretty cool but in terms of space it’s quite impractical – a constant game of Tetris to get ladder, reach fridge, load table, get gas, load bedding etc.
When we’re not driving and recharging the battery, the fridge has about 8 hours of life before it starts to slow cook our perishables. It’s a bit trial and error some evenings, but no food poisoning yet touch wood.
The 15m ‘washing line’ rope is doing absolute bits. As soon as the sun shows its face we’re finding two suitably spaced trees and getting our pantyhose out to dry.
Our biggest truck-efficiency achievement to date has to be popping into a Bunnings in Lower Hutt after our coffee (shoutout to Revive) and nabbing some of their cardboard boxes to give the back of the track a 60-second makeover. Az was putting boxes in boxes to create dividers which made quality cube stacking units. You could sell them in IKEA if you dipped it in cheap white paint – we’d call it ‘Bjorn Ultimatum’.
Welsh Rare-bits 
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