The First Day in Wellington (5th Oct)

Well we are in Wellington and have plans for the day.

We started with breakfast at L'a farre cafe - french toast with banana, maple syrup and bacon, not to forget our moccachino with a Sante chocolate bar melting in it.
Walking past shops and onto a bus to the Bee-Hive. We were going to go on a tour and sit in the public gallery to watch the politicians yell and swear at each other. But we just missed the start of a tour and the politicians were on holidays. So we decided to make our way to the Cable Car. We made a couple of stops on the way starting with the Government Bookshop which is on the corner opposite of the Bee-Hive. I was able to purchase a couple of books that will help me in my course and work in the future and also a copy of the Copyright Act 1994 (riveting reading I'm sure). We also stopped in Borders bookshop where we found some books to take back for the girls.
We finally got to the cable car and bought a return ticket. We wanted to go up to the gardens at the top to see the tulips and some of the spring festival. We started to go down a path that we thought the banner signified. We started to realise we were the only ones on that path, thought it was strange as the cable car had been full of other tourists, kids and university students (they weren't there to see the flowers, the uni is up there too), we being southern chicks figured that we were on the wrong path. Back up the hill; thank the good Lord that we hadn't gone very far; we did find the right path; it had spray painted flowers on it (dah!). We followed the path and 20 minutes later found ourselves at the bottom of the hill; no need for that return ticket huh! The tulips were gorgeous and worth seeing. Unfortunately I had left the camera behind at Paula's (Jo's aunty). We bussed back to Cuba Mall and did the shopping thing. I was on the lookout for a nice sweater/jersey and a pair of 3/4 trousers. No shops had my size at a reasonable price (I didn't buy the skirt for $950, thought it might be a tad too expensive), I started to feel a bit depressed as this was one of those horrible moments of reality with my need to lose weight.
The agenda for the evening was to see a movie. We chose 'Evan Almighty'. Paula ended up lending us her car which was very nice as the theatre was right in the middle of Wellington and at that time of night was a bit scarey.
Both Jo and I were not aware of the unexpected experience of the Regent on Manners cinema. As most females we went to the loo before the movie started. The toilets were not a pretty sight. We went loo to loo to find a decent looking cubicle. I opened one of the doors to find a large amount of blood in and around the loo. I basically freaked out a bit. Jo was adament about not having a look. A good choice. We did find a loo that wasn't trashed. Jo pointed out the ceiling that was crumbling above the wash basins. When I looked down to wash my hands I found another lot of blood; another freak out. We let the two young male staff know about the loo, funnily enough they were rather alarmed! Not sure if it was due to the blood or the fact that it was in the ladies loo and they were the only two there. They informed us that their cleaning lady had not turned up for work. Wonder why?!
After all that the movie was well worth watching. I haven't laughed that hard at a movie for a while. In fact tears were streaming down my face and I exited looking like a racoon due to my mascara running.
A full day and once in bed I don't think I moved till the morning!
Mmmm, blissful sleep!