It rained, and rained, and rained today. All morning, and most of the afternoon. Boooooooooooo.
So, my morning was spent having a long breakfast, doing some washing, and getting a little bit soggy going to the grocery store. I'd found an organic grocery store, which made me quite happy. Made my purse a lot lighter, but my conscience felt brighter! :D
Luckily, the rain did hold off in the late afternoon and evening, so we didn't get too soggy when we went back to Te Papa. Only managed to do one floor before we felt tired again. It's amazing how wandering around a museum makes you tired, but I guess you're soaking in so much information that your brain does need a rest. I don't know how some people do several museums in one day - talk about information overload!
There were some interesting arty exhibits in the museum as well, and unfortunately I didn't get to see much of the 5th floor where all the Maori art is. I did want to buy a book about the museum too, but carrying it around with me would definitely do me in, so perhaps I can find something online somewhere. You can find anything online these days, can't you?

In the evening, we decided to see what the Basement bar was like, hoping that it wouldn't be too crowded. If you stay in the girls only Sanctuary dorm rooms, then you get a voucher for a free glass of bubbly, so we thought we'd see what that was like. It wasn't too bad, and you could play pool for free between 6 and 9pm, so we thought we'd give that a try as well. We all confessed that we weren't any good, so it'd probably make a good game!
We managed to pot a few balls between the four of us (me, Coni, Andrea, and Catherine) and managed a couple of games before we all got too hungry to carry on!
It feld weird, being a Friday night, and by about 10pm, we all wanted to go to bed!
We met our other room mate too, a girl from Auckland called Sonia. She seemed really nice, and we bumped into her in the bar.

However, it was lucky that we did go back to the hostel, as we found ourselves in an interesting situation, which got that little bit worse....
Had my dinner, then went for a shower before going to bed. Before I went for a shower, a lady came into the room (we had the door propped open) saying that she should be staying in the room. As all 6 beds were full, we just thought that reception had made a mistake. It's happened to me a couple of times already, and to other people I've met, so it didn't seem an unusual situation.
However, as I'm in the shower, I hear someone come into the bathroom (it was one of those bathrooms that have a couple of showers and toilets) and call my name.
It was a woman from reception, saying that I wasn't checked in, and that I needed to go down to reception once I'd finished my shower.

Uh oh.

Good thing I'd almost finished! Get back to the room, and the other girls say that this woman - Shelley - came into the room saying that I wasn't meant to be there, and that I hadn't paid, that they had no record of me being in the room, and that I needed to go down to reception to get this stuff sorted out. Christ on a bike! So, in flip flops, pyjamas, and with semi-wet hair, I flip flop down 5 flights of stairs (the lifts are really slow) to reception. It's quite busy down there as well!
Speak to Shelley and she says she's got no record of me on the computer, and basically says that I've been a stow-a-way for the past two nights! I told her that when I checked in, they found me on the computer, confirmed that I was staying 3 nights, I filled in a form, they gave me a key, I handed them $20 deposit, and off I went to the room! I couldn't have checked in, if they couldn't have found me in the first place!!
She looked rather stressed out (as did the poor woman who thought she was going to be in my bed!) but said that her shift was over at 11pm, and just as she was about to clock off, a whole load of people came in to check in!!
Luckily I'd paid for my stay with my credit card and had my receipt on email, so I had to print that off for Shelley to prove that I wasn't just a figment of her imagination, and that I had indeed paid, and that I was checking out on Saturday. Luckily Shelley was able to find the other woman a bed in another room, otherwise I think she'd have got a wee bit annoyed!
If I had paid by cash, I would have had no such receipt. I thank thee amazing person who invented credit cards!! The next hostel I go to and stay for more than one night, I'm paying by credit card!! Or just asking for a receipt whenever I pay for accommodation!!

So, that certainly put an interesting slant to the evening! Thank god I hadn't gone out on a bender and didn't return to the room until 4 in the morning!!
Heaven knows what happened to their computer system as it seems I had just turned into a ghost! They couldn't find me on the system, nor could they find the form I'd filled in when I arrived, which I thought was exceptionally strange! Not my problem I guess, I'm just glad I had my receipt!!

Off to Picton tomorrow, via the afternoon ferry, which should be nice. I was going to go straight to Nelson from Picton, but I just didn't fancy doing a 3 hour ferry ride, and then a couple of hours on the bus. I'd rather have a night in Picton (and it's meant to be very beautiful there) to rest my little bones before heading off. I have been experiencing some travel sickness, from being on so many buses, so the more time between bus journeys the better! It's not been bad travel sickness, I just end up feeling a bit queasy, but it's still not very nice!! Especially if you have to be on one for about 6 hours!! Blurgh.

There's a carnival happening tomorrow in Wellington though, of which I'm going to miss the main evening parade, which is a shame. However, I want to leave myself a few days in Christchurch so I can go swimming with dolphins, swimming with seals, and to just have that last little bit of time to chill out in New Zealand before heading back to Melbourne. I'm flying to Melbourne from Christchurch, so it will be nice to spend about 4 nights there to get all my last minute souvenirs, and so on too. (Also, to post things home so I don't have to lug them around with me!! Got to get my luggage to 20kg or under otherwise I have to pay....it's probably around 25kg now....though I have got a jacket and heavier stuff which I think I'll send home once I get to Christchurch)

However, I'll be able to experience a bit of the carnival because there's music and stalls on from about 11am, so as my ferry isn't until 2pm and I don't have to be back at the hostel until 1pm, I can have a look at what the carnival is like. I've asked the girls to take loads of pictures tonight when they go to the parade, so I can see what I'll miss! I've promised Andrea that I'll send her pictures of the whale watch from Kaikoura as her grandparents said that that's the one place in NZ where she should go, and she doesn't have enough time to go now!

I'll have been away for 2 months by the time I get back to Melbourne, which is half the time I'm away!! In one way the time has gone really quickly, and in another way it feels like it's gone really, really slowly!! I've been to so many different places in New Zealand that I really can't keep up with where I've been or where I'm going!! On one hand I want to plan the last two weeks, but perhaps I shouldn't plan it too much because then I can stay somewhere longer if I really want to. But then, I've only got two weeks to do the things that I do want to!!?!?! I wish I was rich so I didn't have to think about it, because it's kind of frying my brain!