Day Seven

It’s hard to believe you’re with a group of college students when they decide to get up at 7am on a Saturday. But hey, we’re in New Zealand, we want to make the most of our time here. Our plan was to get up bright and early to take the train to Kapiti Coast, which is apparently where all the Wellingtonians go when they want to go to the beach.

We saw this in the train station:

I would take the trip again, just for the train ride; the view was gorgeous. It ran right along the coast for a while, so we had a lovely view of the ocean on one side and rolling green hills dotted with sheep on the other. Sheep are very peaceful-looking, did you know that? Far more so than the cows I’m used to seeing at home.

After the train ride came a half-hour walk to actually reach the beach, but the view was worth it by the time we got there.

It was windy and deserted, and the amount of driftwood cluttering the beach made us sceptical. But a bit of asking around revealed that the lack of visitors was mostly due to the early hour. Not wanting to backtrack so early in the day, we settled in to enjoy it. Some people went swimming; I dipped my toes in and decided that, with the wind that was blowing, it wasn’t worth it. Instead I wandered about and collected seashells. It reminded me a lot of going to the beach in Florida when we visited my grandmother. There weren’t any sharks’ teeth here, though. And the sand was much finer, blowing everywhere in the wind, so much that I thought if we stayed still too long, it would bury us.

We spent most of the morning at the beach, but there were other things to explore. There was a playground right near the beach, but it was full of kids, so we didn’t spend much time there. There were also pony rides being offered, which we joked about taking part of, except that we were all tall enough we’d probably break the poor things’ backs. There was also a market there, sort of a combination of a farmer’s market, a craft fair, and a neighbourhood yard sale. And the coolest ice cream place ever: they blended frozen fruit with ice cream and served it soft-serve style.

Also, I saw this sign next door to the ice cream shop. Some of you will appreciate it.

By that point, it was mid-afternoon, and we’d seen what there was to see in that town. But we had heard that there was a nice hike up a slight hill, with a wonderful view at the top, at the next train stop down. So back to the train station we went.

Calling it a ‘slight hill’ was slightly misleading. More like a small mountain. The path zig-zagged back and forth, steadily climbing higher and higher. The path was clear, but on either side the forest was thick with trees and undergrowth. Sadly, all the walking I’ve been doing has not yet put me in shape; I quickly fell behind the group and spent the rest of the hike struggling to catch my breath and catch up. It was alright, though. At a few points I was able to let go of the need to be with the group, and was able to appreciate the beauty of the forest on a different, more personal level. And a few people waited up for me and made sure I didn’t fall too far behind. And the view at the top was entirely worth it:

So now I’m sore, blistered, and pretty badly sunburned on my shoulders and the backs of my legs, though we were in shade or under clouds almost the whole day, or so I thought. I’ve dealt with worse before, though, and I’ll deal with worse again. It’s a low enough price to pay, considering where I am and what I’m doing.