Katy and I stumbled out of unpowered campervan spot and headed up the road to meet-up with the other van. I had managed to accumulate some sniffles from somewhere which I had suspected might be a cold.
Katy had decided that surfing should be on the morning agenda. Both Micheal and Rachel had far more enthusiasm for this than I did so I happily stayed back at camp whilst they headed for the waves. Sadly they retuned dry 20 minutes later as it turned out the waves at the beach were non-existent and the surf shop wasn’t open. This was fine though as we had located a mini golf site at the camp and went fo a casual round of golfing fun. The usual rule of where it lies [Definition: in mini golf it is proper to play the ball wherever it lies (ends up). This includes out of bounds areas if you have been unlucky enough to go too wrong]. Given there were seven of us we only managed 4 disastrous, argumentative holes before we had to make our speedy way to find a camping spot in Wellington.
Once we had driven out of the gates of the campsite a feeling washed over me that I can only imagine was also felt by those successful smugglers from prohibition days in the US. We had managed to get through the Christian Campsite without being rumbled for our copious amounts of booze on board! Thank, well you know what I mean.
I can’t help but feel a little guilty for breaking what I imagine to be one of their main rules on site, however we didn’t make too much of scene and no one seemingly complained about us, I feel we didn’t do any harm. Interestingly, on the way out we bought a round of coffees where I overheard a couple of lads say “How did we end up on a christian campsite?”
“F**k knows, all I know is it will be a miracle if we aren’t kicked out”
It’s reassuring it isn’t only myself who can accidentally make a booking at religious haven for those seeking the higher purpose.
We made our way down to wellington in haste. We had a mission to try and locate ourselves a free campsite for the night where Mike, Jayne, Katy and myself could sleep in the big campervan whilst the others crashed out in style in a rented apartment. We made wellington in decent time and Katy coordinated a strategic plan of divide and conquer with Brendan via radio comms. Using the correct radio terminology to relay messages between the vans we had our routes and took to finding a spot.
Katy and I headed straight into town and went close to the ferry port where campmate informed us a free campsite existed in the form of a car park. We pulled up and…it was chock a block. There wasn’t a space to be found anywhere. We pulled into the local supermarket and sat silently for a few tense minutes as the reality dawned on us that we may not be able to find a place to sleep.
The other campervan messaged through to us that they too were having difficulty locating a spot. This was going to get stressful. I decided to pull out of the supermarket, not least for the fact that we had no intention of shopping at what appeared to be one of their busiest days. We circled around the block and entered our car park once more. We had just spotted someone pull out when, WALLOP, a campervan pulls into the space. The only thing we could think to do was treat this like a grand prix, and lap the car park praying that a spot would open up.
Thankfully it wasn’t all that long and we had some luck. Tucked between two other large vehicles was a small gap in which we could just about squeeze in. We messaged the others to let them know of our success and they replied saying they would keep trying their place for a bit longer. Katy and I enjoyed some ice cream as we let the time pass by. Eventually another space opened up in the car park just in time as the other group arrived.
After what had been several hours of stress and parking space hunting we were all very much in the need for a drink. Thankfully, Wellington harbour has many establishments for beverages and within minutes we had settled down onto an outside bench within mere feet of the bar. This particular bar also provided free sunscreen and sun hats, which not only made us the fashionistas of the bay but also stopped us getting ridiculously sunburnt in the summer sun. It is honestly so weird spending new years in a summer season. I quickly browsed campsites near the town of Blenhim and called a few up. The usual rise of tension occurred as places said they had no availability. Thankfully phone call three garnered a success and we were confirmed for a site for the next night.
It didn’t take long for us to get itchy feet. We had one day in wellington and we wanted to make sure we saw something. Given it was new years day there wasn’t a lot of stuff that was open but we did manage to locate a funicular railway [note: did you know that you can’t spell funicular without fun?]. This scenic train ride brings you to the top of the hills of wellington and provides stunning views of the cities and the coast.
The summit also had a museum dedicated to the transport but this closed as soon as we arrived. The only thing I managed to take away of note was that the original cars had open air seats on the side. This is one of those moments where historic designs look laughably dangerous as the slightest jolt could feasibly knock you out of the seat and send you doing unplanned rolly-polys down the hill!
Thankfully nature (unless privatised) doesn’t have a closing time and we had a good walk around the botanical gardens. We enjoyed the sights of impressive plants and trees and even pretended to have food for the pigeons so they would land on our hands (there was supposedly free bird food but that had run out).
Louise and Brendan headed off a bit earlier than us to collect keys for the flat they were staying in so once we had our all of nature we headed back into town to meet up. Rather than head to the apartment and be filled with jealousy we headed to a pub. The first place we went to didn’t let us in as Jayne didn’t have her ID on her. Their loss though as we entered a Mexican bar which had homemade cider on tap, BIG WIN!
The time had come for us to get dolled up and paint the harbour red (not in a murderous way, though I’m not sure what the original meaning of this phrase actually alludes to). We all got dressed up and started NYE in the traditional style of pre-drinks before heading out. Of course, in this instance this meant drinking at the van in the car park.
To ensure we didn’t raise suspicion of us street drinking, we devised a rather secretive code of calling the bottle of rum we had “tea”. Using this logic, a Rum and Coke would be a “Tea with coke”. Of course this has no subtlety at all and in fact sounds if anything more scandalous than just saying rum. This also fell apart at the point where Rachel shouted out for a “Rum and Tea”, which also sounds like a horrid concoction anyway.
Once we were all ready we headed back to the harbour to grab some bites for dinner. There were lots of food trucks in full serving swing and we had our fill of various delights including : Baobuns, cheesy chips, pies amongst other things. Sadly, the harbour itself was a no alcohol zone so no more berverages for us! This also provided a very different atmosphere to the one I am used to in London as most people were stone dry sober for the party!
We headed back to towards the carpark and vans to get a better view for the countdown and firework show. Whilst not as grand as some displays put on at capital cities around the world, the display was great and had us in awe as we entered into the new decade. It was also great fun seeing a few of the youths jump into the waters from the dock into what I can only imagine being unflatteringly cold waters. What made it even better was that the rescue dinghy that was sent to save these fools also broke down, and that too required another rescue vessel! We were glad we decided not to jump into the cold depths as well!
Fireworks 
Rescue boat being rescued
Our night ended with Louise, Brendan, Annie and Rachel heading to their fancy in town penthouse [note: having not seen the place I have the luxury of dreaming this place to be a flat where the rooms are spacious and homely and the beds nuzzle you softly to sleep. The flat may be nothing like this description at all]. The res of us settled back for one last run of car park coffees before turning in at a somewhat respectable 1am. This, in fairness, is probably the earliest I have put myself to bed on a new years eve. Yay for age!