31st March- Wellington. Fixing bike no.1

I have been in the great capital of New Zealand for three full days now...and its been a blast from the past of the one year spent when first arriving on these antipodal shores.
Having always held Wellington in great esteem as one of my favourite(ever) cities i was curious to see if it still met up to my previous estimations.

An old friend from dance school called Frank has been kind enough to offer not just floor space but a whole bedroom to myself...happpy joy! Frank is currently toiling from home at present and his workload involves that he spending much time at his computer. This gave me ample oppurtunity to sketch 'Frank at work'.

Frank & I having more of a giggle!

Yesterday was spending exploring the welding workshop of Wellington(a subject that my guide booked failed to cover). I finally located a wellding who had time to re-attatch my top box, and to reduce my costs by reducing his labour time i helped dismantle the neccesary components. Just then the boss welde appeared with his handlebar moustache and the emphatic biker talk ensued.

" south island...yeah you'll love it down there...are you camping...yeah, the best bit is .....the best time of the year is...., you wanna go to...., then there's a real nice road from.... to ...... with no traffic, Just watch out for the.... yeah na! .....good on ya, drive safely"

Friendly biking kiwis are one of the invisible support structures for this trip...sometime hilarious but also very genuine.

So box and rack reassembled i went and visited the Crayfish man from Mahia(see earlier post), and found him in his very nice restaurant/cafe/bar called Hummingbird on Courtney place. Being another kiwi he made time to sit and drink coffee with me.
Wellington city centre seems much the same , aside from a few new buildings and a few missing ones. One notable change is the continuing increase in cafes, which judging by the smell and the number of occupants all do good coffee. People round here must be wired up to thir eyeballs!
After more nostalgic wandering it was time to go home.
Frank was out running so i donned my Asics and triited down to Owhiro Bay along the coast to find him...which i did and then it was home and time for tea.