Wellington

Today I woke up to grey skies but hit the road out of Dannevirke anyway. I only went a short distance when I noticed wet cars coming from the direction I was heading in. I asked some drivers what the weather was like ahead and they told me foggy, drizzling rain. I turned around and decided to take the bus to Wellington.

I ended up on a Naked Bus which is a just a regular bus but with a strange name. It is a privately run company that incorporates some tour bus style comments while driving along and has a hop on hop off fare policy that a lot of backpackers use. They fit my bike in without a problem. It was only an hour and a half ride to central Wellington.

I was very happy that I took the bus instead of riding my bike. There was a 30 mile long section on a very narrow winding road that had no shoulder at all and a cliff on my side that went straight up almost from the white line of the road and the other side had a guard rail right up to the white line on its side. There was absolutely no room for a bike and there was heavy traffic in both directions. I do not think I would have survived that ride…worst, most dangerous road section I have ever seen.

There was beautiful scenery along that section of road but I could not take pics of it from the bus. It was just a high narrow gorge covered in thick forest all over. A river was rushing through the bottom and we followed the river in the bus. The rest of the road was mainly flat to rolling hills with some rather long grades. There was really nothing but rural farming along the road once we were out of the gorge. The ride along the coast maybe would have been nice on a clear day but in the rain we could not see much of anything.

So I am checked into a hostel in central Wellington right now. I have sky high pain and can barely move. What the hell is with my body? I can ride a bike hard all day and feel fine but an hour and a half on a bus and I am a total mess. I will not be leaving my room until morning. I feel a big seizure coming on but hopefully I will not have a bad one. I hate having attacks in public because people call emergency services and then I have to explain to the ambulance EMTs that I do not need to go to a hospital. Well I may not be fine but I do not need a hospital. So until later when I have recovered I will be offline.

I did manage to mostly recover overnight so this morning I went on a bike ride around Wellington and then went to the Te Papa Museum. I used a wheelchair at the museum to minimize my walking so I do not end up like I did last night with high pain issues. I enjoyed the museum and the ride around town. I am heading out for some lunch in a few but found some decent wifi so I decided to post now. A few pics.