Artists Escape!: Adventure day!

It's "winter" here in Wellington which means one thing in particular: rain. It's chilly but not freezing - not very winter-y by American standards. Instead it is the wet and cloudy season, which means wearing layers of wool, ducking under awnings through town, and saying hello to the sunshine in a big way when he makes his appearance.
After days and weeks of rain everyone is happy to see the sun. But when, oh when, will the sun come?

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5.30am Thursday.
The alarm wakes us up to a blur of music. It is pitch black outside and our plan was the usual: get up, be out the door by 5.45am to catch the first bus of the morning. We like to get to work early.
It's been raining all week. For two weeks straight: rain and clouds and rain. The forecast said... well, nobody cares what the forecast said because it's note so much a "forecast" as a "blind guess". I think it's more like a form of conceptual art. Only even more meaningless. So they hedge their bets in the winter and "forecast" rain every day because the odds are that it will rain at least a little every day this time of year. Very technical. Don't question it - it's science.

Moving on. It's 5.30am, we lie in bed, cuddled together, warm and toasty. Pitch black outside, it's so early. And it's quiet.
I hear no raindrops for the first time in what must be two weeks.

"It's going to be a beautiful day!" said I.
"At work?" said J.
"Why would we go to work on such a beautiful day?"
"You want to play hooky?"
"Today it would be a shame to be at work, sitting inside. It's going to be beautiful. Let's go somewhere interesting!"
There wasn't much more convincing to be done. We have sick days so why not use them?!
We packed our bags, 'texted' our bosses (technology is so nice, it means that we don't even have to talk to our bosses on the phone, we just send them a text message), and went to catch a train.
By the time we got to the station, the sun was coming up, and it was still not raining. Perhaps the sun would show his shining face today?

We catch the Wairarapa line to Featherston, which is a little town on its way to becoming an artist village. We have some friends with an art studio there so we decided to check it out.
You remember the Wairarapa from our trip to Napier? The long, winding mountain road. This was a similar route, only without the winding roads, steep drop-offs, and carsickness. There were a couple very long tunnels.
The train was large and spacious, featuring vending machines, a bathroom, and seats with TABLES! It was only a 45 minute ride, but it was so enjoyable that it just wasn't long enough.

View out of the train window. That's Wellington city, our dear home, behind us!

And ahead of us is ADVENTURE.
Please note the beautiful blue sky and the sun about to burst from behind fluffy white clouds.

What a cool train.

Best $15 round trip ($7.50 USD) ever spent.

Going through a valley, it got really cloudy and looked rainy. Fog settled on the tops of hills.

Until we come out on the other side of a long tunnel. We're there and the sky is looking superfine!

We check out all the little shops "downtown", eat at a wonderful cafe called Cornucopia, and Jason tries some monkeybatics at the park.

There is a wonderful board game store, where we saw Tom on the Puerto Rico box.
And we bought Starship Catan. Catan! Catan! Wanna play Catan!
With food taken care of and a new game in hand, we ventured off into the hills. There are a few hiking trails here so we picked one. It's a long way up...