Hodge Podge Lodge

*Photo is of a gleefully terrified me and inventor of the now one trillion dollar laser cannon!
Also, the outside of the place in case you ever want to come by and visit

On and off for the last few months we have been living at Wellington's Lodge in the City. At first glance it's rundown, dark, sketchy and dirty- or in euphemistic terms- it has character and history. The rooms are small and sterile, for flair ours has a tiny faded picture of a waterfall bolted upside down to the wall and yellowing curtains with what appears to be some sort of Native American pastel nightmare patterned on them.

In the beginning it seems like your run of the mill hostel, but once you stay a bit longer you start to notice that it is anything but. The boarders are mostly Kiwi's who have run into some sort of trouble, there are a lot of drunks, people on the dole, people on bail and single mothers with kids; they are, by and large, people with shit to deal with and not your usual bright-eyed travelers from abroad.

There is a third floor which is always locked and inaccessible from the other floors. Does that also mean that they can't get out? My mind goes a flutter with the possibilities, I quite like the mystery.

I like to call it a halfway house of sorts. In my time here, I have often conversed with a man who can carry a conversation equally well with me or the sliding glass door. A man who is in close contact with the Prime Minister, John Key, and is developing a $100,000,000 laser cannon. What is a laser cannon, you ask, does it shoot laser cannonballs, maybe aimed at laser pirates, I'm still not sure? Also, upon meeting you he will kindly offer to file down your teeth, then he will show you how all his teeth are all precisely uniform then he will launch in to a grandiose speech about his idea for a flying car that can get you from Wellington to NYC in 30 minutes. Amazingly he has attracted a posse of like-minded folks, Katie's dubbed them the “little people with big ideas” crew. There is the unknown boarder in 218 who plays nothing but 90's power ballads/R&B very loudly, very early in the morning. There is the silent weathered old man who never speaks to anyone but is always lurking around the lounge drinking coffee. There is the girl who sometimes dons a headscarf and other times skimpy mini-skirts and halter tops. There is the 18 year old girl who can't seem to get her dress to stay on properly and likes to vacuum her room at least 5 times a week. The list goes on...

And as crazy and weird a place it is, I find myself strangely attracted to it, it's beginning to feel like home.