I'm Baaaack (hear nightmare on elm street, or is it Arnie, lol)

Nothing like a dose of unwellness, travel and then work to put you off your stride but today ....  I am good, I am on a day off woohoo, and all is well with my world.

There was an abrupt stop to my postings  mid trip home whilst in Wellington as I fought off a lousy virus of some sort which really flattened me.  I did have some connection hassles as well and it all seemed too hard in the end.  In the midst of the bot, I was also experiencing breakthrough chest pains, even though I was religiously taking my medication which was a trifle unnerving and debilitating as well.  The very good news is that I have not had one chest pain (touch wood) - a bout of gastro, lol, but no chest pain since my return to WA.

To recap a little on the trip home.  I continued to stay in Wellington until  the Wednesday after my last post.  Saturday was rainy and No 1 grandson had a friend for a sleepover so Nana kinda stood down for the day, curled up with a book and did very little.  The boys entertained themselves with various toys and games so a good day all round.  The highlight of Sunday was a visit to niece Laura 's (and Tim's) flat arriving just as she was removing a batch of double chocolate muffins that came with a melted piece of Whittikers chocolate in the middle as you bit into said muffin.  OMG they were truly delicious.  We were whipped up some  flat whites to go with these decadent comestibles so all was right with my world for the rest of the day as we got to take the left over muffins home with us :):):).  While visiting we  took a look from the rooftop of their abode to see that Wellington has moved apace with several new apartment blocks built behind and to the side of them,- interesting to see the skyline and landscape changing. 

Monday was Waitangi day.  Daughter in law and had worked both days in the weekend and suggested we go on a trip to Greytown on the train .  Greytown is an hour north of Wellington and was New Zealand's first planned town, settled in 1854.  Frequent flooding meant that the railway bypassed Greytown in the 1870's (information found out after this day out, lol), the nearest stop being Woodside on the main trunk line about 5.4k's from the township. Today the township still looks very colonial with original houses lining the main street and throughout the town. 

I am picking the shed to the left was the original railway stop or on a line no longer used. 

I like train travel so after DIL had researched things to see and do, it looked as though it was going to be a great day out.  Catching the train at Wellington train station was interesting, there were horse races being held further up the line at Featherston so it was a very festive bunch of commuters with chilly bins, hats and an array of attire,  midst other travellers waiting to catch a ride for the day.  We finally arrived at our destination (above) and looked for a bus to take us the rest of the way into town.  The place was deserted so after a trip to the loo, we decided to check out the timetables for buses and OMG found they run NO buses on the weekend and public holidays to Greytown from the railway station!!!!!!!  Poor DIL felt dreadful as she had googled info the day before and had made sure there were buses to meet the train - and there are - just Mon- Fri which she must have missed.  As it was mid morning and the return train was not until 5pm and we were stuck in the middle of nowhere, we decided we would walk the 5.4k into town and taxi back, thinking all was not lost, and it was a nice day for a stroll in the countryside.  Hmmmmm, more about that later.  We set off, and thank heavens it was all flat walking so we set off at reasonable pace, thankful we had bought backpacks to carry camera, jackets etc.  We must have made an interesting sight to those who zoomed past in cars, tractors and utes as we were in the midst of farming country and dressed for walking about town instead of hiking about the countryside.  Halfway along our trek as we rounded a bend we came to a barn with a sign in front saying

Greytown -Woodside trail and hidden from view 2.4ks (to go). 

This trail follows what was the railway line into Greytown, through farm paddocks, and again was mostly flat terrain, so we decided to go off road and follow this path into town.  The path was metal on grass so off we set. No 1 grandson was like the energiser bunny, skipping along and talked the entire way.  One hour of walking was spent playing animal, vegetable, mineral, lol which indeed did help to while the hour away. 

Beginning of the trail - there were three more equally long distant parts to the track before town :)

a nice leafy glade along the way and the only corners in the path

At the end of the trail by the town rubbish dump.

de resistance had yet to come.  After giving our order DIL used her phone (I forgot to say she had googled GPS to aid us on our walk into town with verbal instructions to "turn right at the end of the road" and such like) to find a taxi.  Was feeling more than a little short with the world at this point (just prior to eating, lol) and decided to ask the waitress instead, could she give us the number for a taxi as we had walked in from the station.  She looked at us blankly and said, there was no taxi in the town, we would have to ring Masterton and they would charge the trip to Greytown before any other fare (at least $30 to start with).  Surely to God she was joking, a town purporting to be a tourist destination and providing plentiful holiday accomodations in the town had NO taxi (nearly required smelling salts at that point!).  I responded by asking how people got home after having a few drinks - see response no 1.  At this point Greytown became my least favourite town in the entire stretch of New Zealand and I think it will be a cold day in hell before I ever go back again.  The air was palpable with dismay at that point, poor DIL offering profuse apologies for the way the day was turning out.  I remarked that given some distance this story will become legend and we were having a bit of an adventure that we would laugh at a later date (much, much later, lol).  Anyhoo, we then did some rapid calculations that gave us about an hour to look about before walking back to the station to catch the train home.

Of the "attractions" of Greytown No 1 grandson wanted to go to Puzzleworld - and to have a game of putt putt golf.  Puzzleworld is a walk through bunch of rooms displaying holograms, interactive puzzles and distorting mirrors which I was over before I had walked through the first room.  I found the place very unappealing though could see small children enjoying it (you can tell my enthusiasm was at low ebb - we had to walk two blocks there and back to see it ^^^)  . We had passed the Cobblestones Village Museum which is the main attraction we intended seeing but as we had no time to look we kept on going making a stop at a shop next to the museum called "Shoc" which is an artisan chocolate studio with flavours such as chili, lavender, lemongrass, curry,and tequila to name a few.  DIL bought some nougat to go - and a few small chocs for No 1 grandson to go and we kept going again.  I tasted a sample of the curry choc - it was white choc flavoured with cardamon and other spices - very interesting, different and not unpleasant at all.  I made no purchases as it was quite warm outside by now and did not feel like lugging extra weight back with me over the stony trail at the prices they charged.

We made one last stop at a local garage on the corner of the main street and the road heading back to the town end of the walking trail where we got drinks and nibbles to get us back to Wellington and off we set.  By now I was more than a little tired so kept my head down in case I rolled an ankle walking on the uneven surface of by now LARGE and sharp stones  feeling very Princess and the Pea, as I was feeling EVERY stone through the thin soles of my town bred shoes.  Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, go to your happy thoughts, lol and keep walking step by step by step.  We made it back to the other end of the trail and were making good time and with a distinct girding of loins, knew we were on the last lap.  On the way in that morning we had passed a rather large looking place set back midst paddocks and with a huge front lawn/garden. .  The sign at the gate said "Woodside House, Country Lodge".  As  we drew near on our return there was a couple out in the garden weeding who sung out hello as we were passing and asked if we were heading to the station.  We said yes and told them about how we came to be walking, the lack of a taxi etc.  They had noticed us walking in that morning and said they themselves did a lot of running folk who stayed with them back and forth being 3k out of town.  The Lodge is a Bed and Breakfast place.  The said they had thought of maybe starting a taxi up themselves and then out of the blue offered us a ride to the station.  Bless and stranger danger be blowed.  Mrs fetched her car and without further ado took us the rest of the way and refused to take any money for doing so.  Total country hospitality and if they were able to do us the kindness that they did, I am sure they will make a huge success of their Lodge.  It looked a lovely place to stay for a get away sort of weekend and so if anyone reading this happens to want to visit Greytown - you could do a lot worse than treat yourself to a night or two or three at the Lodge.  Having the lift saved us an extra 3/4 hour walking so we were well beyond grateful as you can imagine.  The train arrived in due course and we returned to Wellington - I wish I could wax lyrical about the countryside but I slept a good amount of the way there and back but what I saw was good dairying country, green and verdant from memory.

We had agreed we were not walking another step on return to Wellington so instead of walking further to catch a bus we found a taxi and collectively collapsed into it.  I made it to the couch and No 1 son, bless, had ordered an array of pizzas for dinner - had just enough strength to wolf down a few pieces before remaining glued to the couch for the rest of the evening.  My feet when I stood up at any time ached like they hadn't done since Macca days, feeling very battered and bruised they were though they didn't look as though they had suffered any ill effects from the outside.  They were still tender the next day but sucked it up as I returned to Te Papa Museum for another look.

Tuesday was the first day back at school for the year for No 1 grandson and he was a little nervous about being in a new class without some of his friends from the previous year so his Dad and I accompanied him to school.  There was a totally new boy at his table so we left with him being a buddy to the new lad and all was right for the day.  He came home happy, he has a male teacher this year after two years with his previous female teacher and all reports were good - the teacher was a cool guy and played outside with them so a good start.  At Te Papa, I went to the 200 years of wedding costumes exhibition  and enjoyed my stroll around the various exhibits.  I could not believe how tiny the shoes were of the women of yesteryear, nor how tiny their waists were.  How some of them managed to have children I have no idea.  There was a potted history about each outfit, the types of materials used, who wore them, when they got married and if known, how the outfit came to be kept.  I think some of the collection came from the Albert and Victoria museum in England if memory serves me well.   I wandered around for a couple of hours and then hied myself home again to pack and get sorted for leaving the next morning back to Auckland.  It was wonderful reconnecting with everyone and I also managed to catch up with our ex- vicar from some years ago in Waiuku who lives in Wellington.  Had lost touch with the family over the last two Christmases so after tracking down a phone number had a lengthy chat to catch up on news both ways.  I like visiting Wellington, public transport (sans Greytown) is excellent, there is plenty to see and do and you can walk the city in between bus stops,  window shopping or people watching - I love the mix in Wellington of government types, uni students, artists, tourists and everyone in between.  It is a very eclectic look I think. 

Next posting will be more holiday I think as I try to catch up. :):)  It was too good to skip over, lol.