Florence and the machine

We were due to meet the bus at 12 noon so essentially we had a free morning to explore Wellington further.

We started with flat whites from 86; this place was closed last time we were in town. The coffees were good and so it was worth giving them another chance. Wellington could well be the world coffee capital. There are a few chains about but mostly, you can’t walk more than a few metres without coming across an indie coffee place.

Back to Best Ugly Bagels for breakfast. As nice – if not nicer – than last time.

We’d planned to visit the Wellington City Gallery next and were at the door a few minutes before opening time, which gave Andy wi-fi and time to upload yesterday’s post. The gallery normally has a vast range of New Zealand art but they currently have a Cindy Sherman exhibition taking over the whole gallery so we decided to skip it. Instead we explored some of the street art and sculptures along the waterfront.

I was particularly looking forward to our next stop. I was looking at cool things to do in Wellington when I was researching our trip and this came up. Too good to miss! The Monetary National Income Analogue Computer, otherwise known as the MONIAC machine. This is the invention of Bill Phillips – a New Zealand economist brought up on a dairy farm. Bill has an interesting history and I encourage you to look it up. 14 machines were built in total and one of them is in the Science Museum in London. It represents the flow of money round an economy by the circular flow of water. In other words, it’s a hydraulic econometric computer. It is primarily a teaching tool and you can only see it in action one Wednesday each month. The museum curator was fascinated to hear that we’d come in especially to see the MONIAC… so much so that he told us today was our lucky day. He gave us fascinating background information into Bill’s life and the machine and then switched it on. You folks can watch this video.

Mr Kind Informative (I’m sorry I didn’t get his name) also told us to watch out for the green person on the traffic signs (the ones you look up to when crossing a road). On a few of the traffic lights between the museum and the railway station, it displays a Mary Poppins type person. This is Kate Sheppard. She was instrumental in the movement to grant women the vote and as such, she not only gets to be on pedestrian crossings, she’s also on the $10 NZD bill.

Back to the hotel, we collected our bags, checked out and walked the few metres to the railway station where our new bus – and our new driver, Simon – were waiting for us on platform 9.

Driving north along the west coast, we stopped after an hour or so in Otaki for lunch. We have just under 30 minutes so we ate lunch quickly at a local cafe cum bakery which allowed us to spend 5 mins at the Historic Railway Station. It was built in 1886, and at the time it served as a trading stop and Post Office and with a railway cafe, it was a focal point for the community.

I used the remaining few minutes we had left to sit in a toy tractor 🙂

We continued our journey north. The forecast for the days ahead is considerably gloomier than first thought. We were told this morning that we were behind the weather warnings by a couple of days so to expect grey and drizzle, but this has now changed to ‘damp’. This led me to think that if Farrow and Ball were thinking of developing a new collection of paint, they could call it the ‘Wellington range’ and it would have more shades of grey than you knew existed.

We pass farmlands; a town with Dutch heritage with a windmill and a large courtyard with houses for sale – presumably you buy your house and they wheel it to your land? Or take it apart and then put it back together for you on location? They were many sizes available.

As the trickle became proper rain and the windows of the bus steamed, Holly put on a film for us to watch (we have a TV on the bus!). Hunt for the Wilderpeople is a good adventure-comedy-drama film with a touch of Wes Anderson feel to it.

We continued to push north. Near New Plymouth – our destination for the night – we passed through Eltham!

We have a tiny cabin – rail tracks at the back, and lads with posh boats on either side (we think they’re in a club or something, a fishing competition perhaps?).

As the weather was closing in, we went for a brief walk along the coastal path. Long enough to go down on the beach, and look at impressively smart houses.