My first blog entry! Yesterday I took the train to Petone. It chugs along the edge of the Wellington Harbor and takes only 15 minutes. From Petone you can look directly across the harbor to downtown Wellington and the airport. I left the station without a map, following everyone else. Petone is a quaint beach town with one obvious main street (Jackson). The first thing I found was the infamous Pak N’Save (the cheapest grocery store around) but I decided to save this for last. I found a cafe that had cozy chairs and had tea and a cookie. (It is difficult to find basic cookies here. They carry Afgans (sp?) which are dark chocolate cookie-like things made with corn flakes.) Revived, I made my way down Jackson Street spending time and a little money in both second-hand shops ($2 clothes!). Then I found my saving grace: a real bargain bookstore with an owner who loves to chat. Used books were a more reasonable $5-$7NZ with a wonderful collection of mysteries, sci-fi and NZ stories. Petone is my new love.
Unfortunately I have been beseiged by terrible allergies ever since we landed and yesterday was particularly bad. So I popped into the drug store and spoke with the “chemist” who gave me my new miracle drug. Better than new, I headed back to explore Pak N’Save and take the bus (just to be different) to Wellington. The bus and the train are the same fares and the train is much more fun!
I met up with Wm and Angela and walked down Cuba Street to the Flying Burrito Brothers. Wm was worried he would not like this fake mexican fare. But it proved to be delicious.
Sounds like a perfect day! Keep up the blogging!
Hey, what’s the perfect allergy drug? Curious as to what you’re able to get over there…
🙂
Comment by El — 21 Jan 2005 @ 8:13 am
Fantastic blog entry Cindy, keep them coming. (Your entry is way better than Wm’s entries… heeheehee)
Since you had “tea and a cookie” rather than coffee, I’m assuming your preference is tea? Do you find tea in the British Commonwealth to be different (maybe better?) than tea in the US?
Comment by Jennifer — 21 Jan 2005 @ 10:48 am
There is a Pak N Save in Kilbirnie which I think is the bigger.
Comment by Craig Anslow — 23 Jan 2005 @ 6:08 pm