Rushing around like lunatics, the bags were finally packed this morning and zipped closed. But……..what’s happened here? The pull out handle on my bag refused to pull out! Darn – that’s awkward. Instead of a roll-along suitcase I now had a carry it by the handle suit case. There was nothing we could do at this stage, and Robin hoped to fix it later in the day.
Our caravan buddy Geoff had offered, (or maybe he was coerced), into collecting us and driving us and our baggage down to Waikanae Station. We thanked him for his help, and waved him off. From here it was an easy train ride into Wellington, all free, courtesy of our Gold Card (pensioner) status.
Loaded up for our trip to Wellington
We weren’t the only oldies on the train, and noticed one senior climb on-board with his backpack, gold card, and bare feet! Times must be tough when you can’t afford a pair of shoes! Along we chugged, with Kapiti Island looking nice and clear off the coast. Through a couple of tunnels, and as we burst out into the sunshine, Wellington Harbour was spread before us. As the song goes, “You can’t beat Wellington on a good day”.
Wellington Harbour
The next stage of our journey was to catch the Airport Flyer bus. I was in charge of pulling Robin’s wheelie case along, while he manfully lugged mine to the bus stop by the handle. The Airport Flyer was busy, travellers everywhere, all loaded up with heavy cases, and going off on exciting trips, it seemed.
But we weren’t going all the way to the airport. As we were catching a red-eye flight out at an ungodly time the next morning, it seemed sensible to overnight in Wellington. Yes, we would still have to get up early tomorrow, but not as early as if we were travelling all the way in from home. So we got off the bus at Kilbirnie, walked around a corner or two, dealing with that difficult case until we reached our accommodation.
Our home for the night
On booking in we must have looked as little frazzled, as the receptionist organised some help to carry our bags up the stairs. No lift! She also arranged for a wake-up call, and a complimentary shuttle bus to take us to the airport in the early hours of the morning. Our room was lovely with the afternoon sun streaming in.
This is bigger than our caravan
Robin checked out the offending suitcase, and decided it couldn’t be easily fixed. There was no way we wanted to lug it around over the next month, so the only thing to do was to buy me a new case. So off we went to Briscoes, and found a suitable replacement. Not quite as good as my previous case, but the price was right, so that clinched the deal. Time was moving on, we had missed lunch, so walked a short distance to the Spruce Goose Café, wheeling our empty case behind us.
Late lunch at the Spruce Goose
If we order a big lunch, we reasoned, we won’t have to worry too much about an evening meal. So it was Big Breakfasts for two.
That should keep us going
The café overlooks the airport and we watched as the planes took off and landed, one after the other. That will be us tomorrow!
The café overlooks Wellington airport
Then it was a quick cab ride back to our hotel, where we swapped clothes from one case to the other. “What can we do with our old case?”, we asked one of the staff. “Just leave it in your room”. he said, “with a big note on it saying “Rubbish”. This is not the first time we have had to re[place a case while on holiday. While in Hawaii many moons ago the same scenario played out. There a large dark skinned man instructed Robin to “take the case out the back and throw it in the dumpster”
My new wheelie case – of course it had to be blue!
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