Cambridge Hotel, Wellington, NZ

ATTENTION PEOPLE IN CENTRAL WELLINGTON: SOMEONE RENT ME A DANGED ROOM. IDEALLY ONE WITH A BED AND WIRELESS INTERNET. FOR UNDER NZD$160 PER WEEK. AND DO IT TODAY. THANK YOU.

Rained again today (which makes what, five out of six days?), but it cleared up this afternoon and now I dare say there’s some blue sky out there. Will it last? Only time will tell. But I’m betting no.

I found one room-for-rent ad that looked promising. I called them up and was invited over to see the place. I took a cab since I didn’t know where it was (and couldn’t even find the road on my map, which, in retrospect, wasn’t the best sign.

Fifteen minutes and $17 later I climbed a rather steep cement pathway and then some stairs, and arrived at a very funky house. K, who turned out to be one of the tenants, showed me around. The décor was non-committal chic, a futon covered with a sheet, mismatched furniture, a sheet making a doorway to the upstairs loft. Popular with college students. Not so much with me. The room was nice, if a little covered with kids toys. K was living there with her boyfriend/husband and their(?) 3 year old kid, and then the owner and her 3 year old.

While they do have internet and a mattress I could use AND I could move in right away, it was NZD$180 per week (they do rent per week there – SO weird) which is more than I’m interested in paying. And then I realized as I decided to walk home (because I’m an idiot) it was farther from central Wellington than I wanted. Also it wasn’t exactly the genre of roommate I was anticipating.

So I left and decided to walk back to my hotel. Because I’m a moron who never, ever learns. NEVER MIND that I hadn’t paid attention to what way the cab driver was going, NEVER MIND that I didn’t know which direction central Wellington was, I was still going to walk. Did I ask for any hints? Certainly not!

Once, when I was describing to Paige about my directional sense she likened it to Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Dumb? I’m not sure. Either way, point being that no matter what direction I chose, it would turn out to be wrong. It’s not that my first instinct is wrong, it’s that whatever way I commit to will be wrong.

The other problem is that I tend to fancy myself smarter than any signs I might see. And that I didn’t have a map with me.

Here’s my starting and ending points:



And here’s the approximate route I took:



It wasn’t too bad except when the wind picked up, and when my jacket, which is water-resistant and not waterproof, started soaking through. But I was smiling (and possibly singing along) when Culture Club’s “Karma Chameleon” came on after I got through the Victoria Tunnel, and 2.5 hours after I started I arrived, soaked, back to my room.