I spent a good two to three hours in Zealandia and eventually when my feet couldn’t take it any more gave in and went back to town to listen to Jazz in a pub whilst having dinner. The pub was packed, and it was a lovely day, so people were sitting outside on the grass in the square. The Jazz was Trad which is not my favourite by any means but very enjoyable all the same. The band was of the silver haired variety, which is often the case with Trad.
After their three sets I decided it was time to make my way back to my digs and walked. I didn’t let the Sat Nav fool me this time, I had its number, and kept on the same road. It was a long walk after a busy day, I was ready to hit the hay when I got in. However my host kept me chatting for a while, we had an interesting conversation about writing travel blogs, he and his wife travel for about three months a year now they have reached a certain age, and he writes about their travels.
I then started suffering from indigestion and was awake until about 4am, the next morning I still couldn’t shake it so decided to take it easy for the day, did some writing and slept a bit. But that evening I decided I had to go out, so took myself out to dinner in the local area to an Italian restaurant recommended by my hosts. The restaurant was in what looked like the downstairs of a house, with a room at the front, and a big room at the back. The waitress put me in the back room with a view of the washer upper in the kitchen! Old woman on her own syndrome, she said it will be quiet for you here.
I wasn’t in any mood to make a fuss but there were plenty of other tables in there as it was empty! The front room had looked quite buzzy and would have been a nicer place to be. I ordered my food and a carafe of wine, well why not! The main course was ok, and so was the wine, by now there were more people in there, but the service was slow. I finally got served again and asked for cheese and biscuits, the cheese had clearly just come out of the fridge. Oh well. But the final straw was the waitress who just kept ignoring me even though it was obvious that I had finished. Eventually I lost it and asked her if she could serve me rather than cleaning the table next to me, she said I don’t understand, so I said in rather a loud voice well can I just have my bill please.
The owner who was also the chef and was watching this unfold came over and asked me what the matter was. I told him about the terrible service I had experienced all evening and he took my bill and tore it up. He listened and was extremely apologetic, I felt quite sorry for him in the end because he said he had lost three staff and this girl was new and he recognised she wasn’t up to scratch.
Off home to recount the tale to my hosts, the wife had come home that day, we had a bit of a chat, but I made my excuses as I had to be up early for my taxi to the harbour. I was catching the early ferry to Picton on the South Island. My stay in Wellington had been very short and I hadn’t really done much, I wasn’t really taken with it, I had quite high expectations because my Erik had told me he loved Wellington. I hadn’t really had the time to explore properly so I shouldn’t be too harsh on it. Well, that’s the first two weeks of New Zealand done in a flash, I wonder what South Island will bring?
