Today was my last day in National Park, and I was lucky enough to be up early and enjoy a gorgeous dawn. There was the tiniest sliver of moon visible when the clouds cleared briefly. On my walk to the coffee cart I heard a helicopter flying back-and-forth, I wondered it was some kind of emergency copter because it wasn’t flying over the volcanoes, but I later passed a woman I was on her yard, watching her animals as they had their morning constitutional, and she said that it was cropdusting.
When I was hanging out in the railway station waiting room, it’s only open an hour or so before the train is due in each day, I heard so many different languages: German, French, Russian, Japanese, Mandarin-it’s like a mini United Nations!
There are lots more families on the train now that it’s school holidays, and the train is very full. I don’t seem to be many people traveling solo, and I lucked out again getting a window seat and empty seat next to me. There’s a large Tongan family sitting in front of me who seemed very excited about the holidays. The dad is wearing a Christmas themed bucket hat (bucket hats are very popular here), the mum has a Christmas themed blouse and the primary school age kids are singing Rudolph the red nosed reindeer, but have changed the ending to a more kiwi one ‘You’ll go down in his-tor-ee, like Ja-cin-da’
I listened to some of the commentary I missed on the way up and learned that there are over 200 species of ferns in New Zealand! We went through one area with a canyon that was filled with many kinds of ferns, unfortunately, it was raining at that point, so I wasn’t able to get many clear pictures. I also found out that there are 2 Carnegie libraries that are still in use here, I don’t know how many there were originally, but I didn’t realize they were any outside of the US.
The scenery was just as gorgeous on the way back, it’s amazing how calming it is to look at all the beautiful green everywhere and so much flowing water. I am hoping that the US’s West Coast is getting more much-needed water.
As seems to be pretty consistently the case on the train, we arrived about an hour behind schedule. I just missed the bus that would’ve dropped me off really close to the place I’m staying, so I ended up having to do a 15 minute trudge up the hill (about a 600 foot elevation gain over a quarter mile). Luckily it’s summertime so it was still light outside and the Wellington wind was not too strong and kept things cool. The place I’m staying for a a few days before we head on our trip to the South Island is near the airport, though I can only hear the airplanes when I’m sitting outside in the courtyard. The owner’s kitty, Rita, is adorable and loves to cuddle, so I have a nice companion.
