Back At Rowena's Lodge

So I was gonna hang around Taranaki for another couple of nights so I could climb that mountain but eventually I decided against it. Its a big scary mountain and I didn't want to do it on my own and anyway, Wellington has plenty of hills that resemble mountains so I headed back down to the nation's capital to catch up on my blog because there's no decent internet between Auckland and Wellington. Seriously, its like an abyss. I also wanted some time to just chill out try and get the smell of sulphur out of my towels.
Oh yeah, and there's another handy hint if you go to Hell's Gate in Rotorua. Wear old togs, take an old towel, shower properly and when you're done put the togs and towel in a bag and incinerate them or you'll spend the rest of your days wandering round smelling like an egg salad.

There's goes any hope of my rebound shag.

Anyway, I checked back into Rowena's Lodge up in Mt Victoria and guess what? It's STILL full of crazy people! Just as I was chatting to a girl who was telling me all about how she's on benefits but wants a job but can't write a CV on account of her "disorder" and probably should go to her drug and alcohol rehab courses, a condition of her probabtion, before they resentence her for her two counts of assault with a blunt weapon and one count of stealing a car and trashing it, a man known only as Bush Man (on account of the fact when he first got to Rowena's he slept in the bushes) rocked up clutching a beer, fresh from court after being"convicted and discharged" for breaching the liquor ban and arguing with cops.

I'm so sleeping with the car door locked these next couple of nights.

Although in all fairness, the crazy people are generally pretty cool once you get to know them. I mean, last time there was Cheryl who told me all about her P addiction and the fact she'd lost her kids because she couldn't get a job or a place so her kids are in foster care but she really wants to clean herself up and get her kids back but she can't get work for all kinds of various reasons. As unstable as she seems she's actually lovely once you can tear your eyes away from the scabs round her mouth, she came out with us one night and we had a blast.
But somtimes they're not so cool, there was Ashika, the terrifying little Fijian girl. We called her Little Box Of Fear, she was tiny but she'd go off on these rants either to herself or at people about the craziest things, usually god and she'd become convinced that she'd known you for years and you'd somehow wronged her in the past. She was also a swine for robbing your food and booze an all. She was absolutely terrifying, the kind of scary where you're convinced if you say her name 5 times in the mirror she'll come and carve your guts out with a hook.

I do kinda like this about Rowena's Lodge though, it takes your expected bunch of international backpackers and mixes them up with people from the community centre who have nowhere else to go, plus locals who just find it easier to live there than move. The result is a colourful and interesting band of people from all walks of life, you meet people who you would never have normally met and let's face it, that's a massively important part of travelling.

Anyway, I'm only here for a couple of nights before I catch the ferry to the south island. Might as well pick up here where I left off last time. If you need me I'll be out front having a beer and hoping that everyone remembered to take their meds.

written by

Koala Bear on January 29, 2009 from Wellington, New Zealand

from the travel blog: Tiny Little NZ Road Trip

tagged Bollocks

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