Dawn and I find an apartment in the Hataitai region of Wellington with a 3rd roommate. Hataitai is on the side of Mount Victoria. The reward for climbing the mountain is a beautiful panoramic view of Evans Bay, Lyall Bay, and the Miramar peninsula. This picture is looking out the living room window.I am sore for days after lugging furniture up this godforsaken mountain. The man who delivers my bed asks if anyone is available to help. "Well it's just me so... no." But I don't have an alternative. My legs are covered in bruises because whenever it gets too heavy (which is every 5 seconds), I stop and rest all the weight on my thighs.
I'm in reasonable shape, but the 10 minute walk home from the bus stop leaves me in the same condition as a 1 ho
ur spinning class. Pedestrian walkways allow you to avoid the zig-zag roads and their hairpin turns. Depending on which bus stop I choose, this "shortcut" involves either 151 stairs or a vertical pavement. Momentum forces you to trot, not walk, down the shortcut. The journey up the shortcut is grueling. I'm huffing and puffing; my heart is pounding; my hamstrings are burning. With every step, I repeat to myself, "tight ass, tight ass, tight ass." All this hard work better leave me with something good to show. After the shortcut, you continue uphill for a few minutes. A brief reprieve of flat road then gives you just enough time to catch your breath before reaching our front step. Don't get too excited - you still have to climb 61 more steps to the front door. And those 61 steps are interspersed wi
th ramps. Most of the walkway is fenced in, but not all. This picture shows me at the path's narrowest section, about 1 foot wide. On one side is a drop off to the road 20 feet below. On the other side is overgrown bush that invades your 12 inches of personal space, threatening to knock you over. This strikes me as a legitimate danger, but the Kiwis take it all in stride. Our landlady observes, "I see there's been a bit of a slip" (pronounced: beet of a sleep). A bit of a slip? She means a landslide. As in, the earth supporting the walkway is crumbling away. These barricaded "sleeps" are a common sight around Hataitai. Click here for a pictorial tour of our apartment and neighborhood.
2 comments:
i never thought any of us would have a place with a greater view than the one we had at the student village. you have proved me wrong. amazing.
and i'm am SERIOUSLY concerned about your safety with that walk and that cliff. no stumbling home drunk.
I share candice's concern about the walk. Be careful coming home after a night out.
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