Chris Stoddart’s Wanderings

Wanganui, New Zealand

A bright, clear and cold morning in Picton and with a ferry sailing at 10am, no rush to get up and get down to the docks. However, they still like us there an hour before the sailing, so 9am we were waiting. Unfortunately there didn’t seem to be a boat. As we got closer to the 10am sailing, the lack of a boat became somewhat discouraging! Compared with the outward trip, there seemed to be fewer people in the queue – only about 40 cars instead of the 100+ last time. At 9.45 we were chuffed to seethe good ship ‘Aratere’ turn up. They then began unloading. Off came trucks and train wagons as well as cars, which makes it sound a lot bigger that the outward boat, but it turned out she wasn’t, only carrying about 350 passengers to the ‘Kaitaki’s 1000+. Eventually they started loading, starting with the railway wagons – when it came to our turn, they put us on the same deck as the railway stuff. We all had to reverse on to the ship, which had a couple of drivers in a tizzy so a harbour official had to do it for them. I noticed the official chosen for this job was a pretty girl, which sort of guaranteed no Kiwi men would fail to give it a go.

Anyway, backed on to the boat, we then had to negotiate a tangle of hawsers and chains to get to the exit and stairs/lifts to the upper decks. Much better seating on this boat – looking at the specs ‘Aratere’ seems to have been built in Spain for InterIslander Ferries and is Wellington registered. No rebadged SeaFrance boat this time. We finally set sail about 45 mins behind schedule, which wasn’t too bad in the end. By the time I’d got a couple of drinks and a choc brownie we were out of Queen Charlotte Sound and saying goodbye to South Island.

The whole crossing was pretty uneventful and the Cook Strait pretty calm. In no time we seemed to be docking at good old Wellington again. The skies were still blue, and had been all the way across. The forecast in the ‘Dominion-Post’ newspaper was pretty dire for North Island and even the boat captain had warned up it was cloudy and raining in Wellington. IT WASN’T. Overall we’ve found the weather forecasting to be pretty dire in NZ as a whole. There hasn’t been a single day without some sunshine in it so far, and today for example, it’s been sunny he whole day despite the forecasters. Whether this is due to the fickleness of the NZ climate or the crapness of the forecasters, I don’t know.

Anyway, we were straight on to Hwy 1 and heading north before you know it. Bye-bye Wellington, maybe see you again? The original plan had been to stay on Hwy 1 all the way north, which would mean retracing some of our route down. Looking at the map we decided to branch off at Palmerston North on to Hwy 3 and head through Wanganui and Waitomo. It would mean not crossing our outward tracts until the very last day’s drive in to Auckland airport, and after all, that’s what we are here for. With that in mind, we made a quick 100 clicks to Bulls for a tea break. Yes, the town is called Bulls, and do they milk it. Even my AA atlas which gives points of interest says ‘Many humorous signs’ next to Bulls. See the pics for examples. The good news was this tiny town also had many open cafes even though it was past 2.30pm! Incredi-bull (groan).

It was only a short hop from there to Wanganui, our stop for the night. We quickly got checked in to the Acacia Park Motel at the side of the Wanganui River. This has even bigger rooms that the night before. I think we’ll soon be having a house to ourselves if this goes on much longer. Took a wee walk by the river then headed into town in search of some dinner. The town is quite old and really elegant and I managed a daily fix of Art Deco. We ended up in a Mongolian restaurant of all places – it looked pretty cool and indeed turned out to be just that. You chose your own raw ingredients, like a supermarket pile-in salad, then handed them to the chef who cooked them on a huge hotplate whilst you waited. Was pretty nice. That’s about it for today – tomorrow it’s a big-mile day to put us within striking distance of Auckland. Hopefully thee’s still be me for a diversion or two though.

Picton, New Zealand

A big move north today as we gradually make our way back towards Auckland and the onward flights.

Drawing the curtains this morning revealed a stormy and rain-lashed Christchurch, so I am really glad we had a day here yesterday rather than today – it would have been a lot less fun. After brekkers the concierge recovered the car from somewhere nearby and loaded it with cases for us, then we made a dash through the rain and jumped in. Bye-bye to Grand Chancellor and bye-bye Christchurch. Getting out of the city seemed dead easy now I have the one-way roads sussed and we were on Hwy 1 north in no time at all. We even had a motorway for a few miles, though it doesn’t let you drive any faster than the main roads.

I kept the car moving across the Canterbury plains and we made a quick 150 km to Kaikoura, a town by the Pacific Ocean, for coffee. The rain had stopped soon after leaving Christchurch, but it had stayed grey and cool this far. Temptingly we could see blue skies on the horizon and as we hadn’t had a day without sunshine yet, I hoped today wasn’t going to be the exception. Kaikoura is one of the main places in New Zealand for embarking on whale and dolphin-watching cruises, but looking at the steep Pacific waves and grey skies, it didn’t seem awfully tempting today.

From Kaikoura it’s back heading north with the views along the coast getting more and more spectacular. Snow-covered mountains on one side, steep Pacific breakers on the other. It wasn’t long before we broke out into the sun. At about the same time we reached Ohau Point, which is supposed to have a seal colony. We piled out to take a look, nearly got blown over, but indeed there was a large colony of seals on the rocks below. You could see them, occasionally hear them, and if, like me, you got within 200 feet, you could smell them! These were New Zealand fur seals, though I am not quite sure what difference they are from other seals (apart from the passport, obviously).

After a bit of seal-watching, it was back on the road for another 150km to Blenheim for coffee and a bun. We reached there before 2.30 and I pulled the car up right outside a deli. Got out the car and found they were closing. 2-bloody-30, can you believe!? They only opened at 10, so that’s hardly a working day now is it? There are some people where I work at the Uni that would consider 2.30pm a bit of a late morning start. Those young New Zealander’s that come to work in London for a year or two must think they have dropped into the seventh circle of hell. Mind you, I think that about London too and I was born there!

But anyway, rant over. There was a second cafe over the road that was staying open until the dizzyingly late hour of 3pm. We got our coffee, etc. I noticed there was a Turkish kebab shop down the road with a very prominent, large sign outside ‘Yes, We Are Open’ – I am not sure if the sarcasm was deliberate or not. Did a bit of a tour of Blenheim, but there wasn’t that much to see, so we headed off out. It turned out that whilst driving away from the town centre the town looked a lot nicer with parks and wide streets, but Picton and the ferry port were calling.

Picton is only 20 mins down the road from Blenheim and we got there in plenty of time to secure a massive apartment in the Broadway Motel – our biggest yet. Picton itself is pretty, but a bit of a disappointment. It’s really just a dropping-off point for the ferry and I suspect that most people do basically what we did when we arrived going the other way, and drive straight through. Still it’s a bed for the night and means we can be up at a civilised hour for the ferry back to North Island in the morning.

Christchurch, New Zealand

A full day in Christchurch today and plenty of things to be doing so no time to waste. All the action round here seemed to centre around Cathedral Square, and as this is only 10 mins walk from the hotel, we headed off down there. It’s a holiday here and the place was very quiet, with just a few people about at 9.30am. However, we weren’t hanging about and first trip out was to the International Antarctic Centre, which is located near the airport. We caught the shuttle bus, and as we were the only passengers the driver gave us a bit of an impromptu city tour on the way. I must say that Christchurch is seriously nice and most of the people nicer.

The International Antarctic Centre (IAC) is directly opposite where the American and New Zealand Antarctic ‘base camps’ are. There were quite a few US Air Force cargo aircraft parked round their massive section of the airport. Even the NZ Air Force only had a little tin hut in comparison. I’m guessing that the British Antarctic Survey are based somewhere like South Africa since their station is on the other side of the continent? I am told that Prince Edward & Sophie will be visiting the IAC in November as part of his trip to NZ, so we beat you Eddie!

Anyway, we got there just before they fed the penguins, so big rush right through the centre to the penguin enclosure. These are Little Blue Penguins, native NZ penguins and the world’s smallest. The enclosure is a big tank and the keepers get in there and feed them by hand. I saw one penguin consume 10 fish before staggering away to try and digest them all. It’s a wonder they still floated! From there one of us (ahem) went into the snow and ice experience – this required borrowing overshoes and a thick jacket and entering through double doors into a large room, complete with a skidoo, igloo and ice slopes. The temperature inside was about -8 degrees when I went in, but after a few minutes the lights dimmed and an Antarctic blizzard began raging with winds up to 40km/h. It was somewhat chilly. The windchill went down to way below -20 degrees and frankly I was glad to get back out for a cup of coffee and a bun.

Next up was a trip on the Hagglund. I have to get me one of these. A wee tracked vehicle built by the Swedes for polar exploration, it can go just about anywhere. I sat in the cab with the driver, and with various noisy kids were safely tucked in the trailer at the rear, we set off for the special obstacle course round the back of the IAC. Sorry, no photos from the trip – too much effort to hold on! We climbed over hillocks the size of a house with 45 degree slopes (and the same down the other side), made crazy turns and jumped over a 3 foot wide ‘crevasse’. We did all of this pretty much without slowing down. For a finale we went through the lake, which is much deeper than the vehicle, so it had to ‘swim’ most of the way. I am glad to say it didn’t leak despite water coming up nearly to the windows. The petrolhead in me says this is an ace bit of kit and would totally own the Snake Pass in winter!

After we’d had a good look round some of the more sedate stuff at the IAC, we caught the Penguin Express back to Cathedral Square. I was glad to see loads of people were now in the square and all the shops and cafes round had opened up too. A spot of dinner, and we went into the Southern Experience. Now this is largely Another Bloody Aquarium and IMHO here’s only so many of them you want to see in a lifetime, unless maybe you’re a cat. However, they do have a USP – they have some real kiwis. I read somewhere that the vast majority of New Zealanders have never seen a kiwi, so it felt wrong to come all this way and miss the opportunity. After a while looking at the fish, mostly to allow our eyes to acclimatise to the low light, a keeper took just four of us at a time into the kiwi enclosure. There’s absolutely no photography or even mobile phones allowed in there since these birds are very sensitive. It was hushed tones throughout. The enclosure is lit to simulate moonlight as kiwi are nocturnal – in the real nighttime huge banks of overhead lights simulate daytime so the birds go in their burrows and get some kip. The enclosure was planted out like a native forest. At first we couldn’t see anything, then suddenly one of the birds strolled right up to the glass – they are a lot bigger than I thought! About the size of a domestic chicken, except fluffy dark brown and with the long beak of course. The bird was totally unconcerned, rummaging around for food. A few minutes later a second bird joined the first. They are really quite comical-looking to European eyes. In a way it was quite moving to see them in the sombre light, going about their business completely unaware how precarious things are for kiwis in the wild these days.

After the kiwis there was a bit of a whistlestop tour of the centre. Down to the banks of the River Avon to see the punts (Wendy; no thanks. Me: done that in Cambridge). Along to the Botanic Gardens and the museum, just for a look from the outside really. Then back to the hotel via the Cathedral itself. A proper, if slightly bijou cathedral this time – none of your bungalows from Nelson. I think Christchurch is my favourite city so far and South Island has been a revelation. I better start saving so I can come back and see the Island for longer! As we walked back to the hotel we noticed that the clouds were rolling in and it was getting a bit cooler. After a lovely sunny day, as I write this it’s raining. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Christchurch, New Zealand

The morning started bright, clear and cold. At 8am locals began setting up a market in the motel car park. These Sunday markets seem to spring up in rural areas and are a bit like mini car boot sales, with the usual car boot tat most of the time, only with added handicrafts of greenstone and glass. Anyway, we had a look round before breakfast, but after brek we were off up the hill to see the pancake rocks in Paparoa National Park. These are natural formations that have been created by complex geological processes that were too hard for me to understand on just two coffees. They looked pretty amazing though and have apparently been used as part of a sequence in ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ on the telly.

After a walk round there we moved on back to Greymouth. It looked a lot nicer today in the sunshine, but not only was the town closed, it was chain-linked fenced off to make a motorcycle racetrack. We managed to find a coffee shop both open and outside the circuit and topped up the caffeine. A quick look round what bits of the town we could see and a quick watch of the bike racing from the wrong side of the fence and we moved on to the railway station, which was also outside the circuit. The whole thing there was dead organised – there was a baggage check-in like a little airport and we got rid of the suitcases. We also said goodbye to the red Ford Focus at this point and the Apex Rental man confirmed a blue one would be waiting at Christchurch station for us. Seemed pretty smooth since I booked it all 8 weeks ago and 9000 miles away in the middle of their night.

We then had an hour-long wait for the train. Lots of other people started turning up and checking in, so it didn’t seem long before the train arrived and disgorged it’s load of passengers from Christchurch into waiting buses and rental cars. They then took the train away briefly to swap the locos round from one end to the other so it could make the journey back. They then let us on board. At 1.45pm precisely we set off on the single rail track back across the country.

If you don’t know, this rail journey is from the Tasman Sea port of Greymouth to the Pacific Ocean city of Christchurch across the Southern Alps, rising to a maximum altitude of 7300-and-something metres at Arthurs Pass Village. Scenery-wise it’s pretty astonishing, as you might imagine. Just before Arthurs Pass, the train moved into a tunnel for a good 20 mins; it has been grey and cloudy on one side and was brilliant sunshine when we emerged. The train includes a viewing platform, which is basically a carriage without seats or windows. People would go in from their regular carriage for a little while, take some pictures and then scuttle back to the warm. Eventually we descended from the Alps onto the Canterbury plain and made a run for the city.

We finally arrived in Christchurch at just gone 6pm. The cases appeared on a baggage conveyor fairly promptly and it was out to the car park to find an unlocked blue Focus with the keys in the glovebox. You have to smile at how trusting they are here. Or at least you do until you find that apart from being identical in every way to the red Ford Focus (apart from blue and clean), somehow the boot is smaller! Took me a while to figure it out, but the red car must have had a spacesaver spare tyre and the new one has a full sized. I can’t think of anything else, but I got the cases in, just.

It was then a 15 minute drive to the hotel, whereupon they took the keys off me and parked the car in the multi-storey next door. For a change we are abandoning Copthorne and are in the Hotel Grand Chancellor, just a few hundred yards from the Cathedral Square and the centre of the city. They have put us on the 19th foor, which gives great views towards the surrounding hills. But that’s enough for tonight. Tomorrow we take a look to see what Christchurch as to offer.

Greymouth, New Zealand

Wow, this place gets better and better. There’s no question that South Island beats North Island hands down for scenery based on what we’ve seen today. Many miles driven (320km) but we took lots of breaks along the way so it didn’t feel too bad.

Started the morning in Nelson, a bit cool and overcast as we abandoned our motel and went in search of breakfast. A big cafe called “Lambretta’s” was doing good business and looked very cool, so they hooked us in too. Their eggs benedict were ace and Wendy couldn’t manage all her omelette. After break we wandered round the market that had been set up in one of the car parks. Very interesting – lots of craft people mingled in with local produce. Shame we don’t need any bread or cheese or sculptures made from driftwood and wriggly tin.

From Nelson it was south on our old friend Hwy 6 towards a date with a train at Greymouth. The sun had appeared by now and about an hour down the road we stopped at a little town called Murchinson for a cuppa and a KitKat. Up until then the drive had been nice but normal for New Zealand; however between Murchinson and Inangahua we entered the Buller Gorge on the edge of Victoria Forest Park. The road followed the path of the River Buller down towards the sea and was incredibly spectacular, to put it mildly. All bridges were single track and at one point the road was a single track that clung to the cliff face. Luckily it was traffic light controlled!

At the foot of the gorge and still reeling from the views we took a small detour into Westport for a late lunch. A nice quiet town that was largely… you guessed it, closed. I know it’s a Bank Holiday weekend, but surely closing shops on a Saturday dinner was something we never did in the UK? All the time we keep getting passed by groups of motorcycles. It was nice to see them out enjoying the sunshine and twisty roads, but little did we know this was going to have ramifications later!

From Westport Hwy 6 runs along besides the Tasman Sea for about 50 miles to Greymouth. This was the second scenic surprise. Mile after mile of clifftop views, deserted beaches and waves crashing onto the shore. Absolutely astonishing. If this were the UK it would be packed all the time, never mind on a holiday. After over an hour of this we crossed a bridge over the Grey River into Greymouth, and finally that’s where we found all the bikers congregating. Seems like there is a big series of motorcycle races this weekend and every hotel and motel in the town is booked up! Luckily we recalled a beautiful place about 30 mins back up the road, so we did a U-turn and headed back to Punakaiki, to a little motel right on the beach. For the first time we don’t have Sky tv and I don’t have internet access, but otherwise (or perhaps because of) it is perfect. The restaurant has just served me fish and chips for tea and I have just seen the most staggering sunset over the sea. Sometimes you just drop lucky because from what we had seen of Greymouth it was the usual NZ town, whereas here is little short of amazing. There’s even supposed to be a market in the morning and somewhere very interesting to visit tomorrow just a km up the road. But more on that in the next instalment.

Nelson, New Zealand

6.30am start on a rainy morning in Wellington saw us eating brekkers in the 7th floor of the hotel as the city woke up below. A 15min drive from the hotel to the ferry terminal and we were in the queue for the Interislander ferry. The car hire company had arranged all the tickets, so it was just a question of turning up and waving a ticket and we were driving up the loading ramp of the ‘Pride Of Cherbourg’. Ooops, I mean the ‘Kaitaki’, except of course the previous name was still visible in painted-over steel letters on the bow. She was even still registered in Southampton and flying the red duster off the stern (*). Obviously we had a chuckle about how often she must have chugged across the English Channel before ending up here, 11500 miles away, but it was to get better still – more later.

(*) That’s the red ensign of a British merchant vessel, you landlubber!

Onboard was like any cross-channel ferry you have ever been on, which is hardly surprising, eh? We grabbed some seats and on the dot of 8.30am the boat cast off and set sail. It was sit back and enjoy the ride for the next 3 hours/90km as we crossed the Cook Strait and through Queen Charlotte Sound to Picton on South Island. The first hour was pretty steady crossing the Strait, but once the ship entered the Sound, the scenery took a turn for the spectacular. The Sound is quite narrow and steep-sided with wooded hills either side and very little sign of life. Occasionally we’d pass a fish-farm or an isolated holiday home, only accessible by water, but otherwise it’s all untouched nature. The rain had dried up before we left Wellington, and in Queen Charlotte Sound the sun tried it’s hardest to get through the heavy clouds. It make for a a moody backdrop. All too soon the ‘Isle of Innisfree’ was in sight of Picton. Ooops, I mean ‘Kaitaki’ again. You see, I’d just found the commissioning plaque and it seems the old bus was built in Holland in 1995 for Caledonian Macbrayne and sailed the Western Isles for a number of years before becoming the ‘Pride of Cherbourg’ in the Channel. I wonder how long she’s been the ‘Kaitaki’ crossing the Cook Strait?

We docked in Picton so gently it was impossible to tell when we were at sea and when we were tied up. After the usual long wait on the car deck, we were allowed to drive off on to South Island. It was only 11.30am, and still tanked up on ‘Kaitaki’ coffee, we elected to take the scenic route to Havelock for lunch. This is called Queen Charlotte Drive and on the map looks like a child doing zig-zag scribbles. On the road it’s obvious why it looks like that – yet another swoopy road, only this time with beautiful vistas over the Queen Charlotte and Pelorus Sounds. We have 30km of this to Havelock, a tiny little town where the Drive joins Hwy 6. Lunch was in a small cafe called the Wakamarinian next to the inevitable museum. I can thoroughly recommend the cafe’s bacon and egg pannini though!

From Havelock it’s only 70km to Nelson, our stop for the night. We were there before 3pm, and checked in to Trailways Hotel at the side of the Maitai River. It was nice to be able to wander round the town before they closed the place for 5pm! Some of the shops were getting a jump start though as it’s Labour Weekend coming up (so Monday is a national holiday). I am seriously glad we’re in a city (Christchurch) for Sunday and Monday nights – there’s a chance everything won’t be shut there. But Nelson is nice and has yet more Art Deco buildings mixed in with modern . Our motel is on Trafalgar Street (of course) and at the other end stands Nelson Cathedral. Originally designed at the turn of the last century to look like a typical English cathedral complete with flying buttresses and a enormous spire, due to changes in funding and that sort of thing, it’s ended up much flatter – like a bungalow cathedral! I cant help that being built from grey tufa instead of the usual pale stone makes it look a bit like it’s built out of breeze blocks as well. Still, we take a peek inside and it’s nice and modern and airy. We cal it a day at this point and head for some tea.

Tomorrow is a long, long 300km drive to Greymouth, ready to catch the train on Sunday. Here’s hoping that views over the Southern Alps make the drive worthwhile!

Wellington, New Zealand

Today we have had a change from driving and walked and walked round Wellington. It’s been nice to have tired legs rather than a sore bum! The weather isn’t as kind as yesterday and it’s much cloudier, though the sun has put in the odd appearance. At leased the rain has held off, which is nice for a walking day.

We started out by heading up to Lambton Quay to the bottom of the cable car terminal. $3 each for a ticket, which is a bargain considering how high it climbs. The cars look a bit old-fashioned, but are actually fairly new, built by the Swiss in the 1980’s. The cable car route itself has been in operation since the late 19th century, so it’s pretty venerable. The 10 minute ride takes us well above the city to the Carter Observatory and the Cable Car Museum – we wander round the Museum (free) which is actually very interesting and has both a very, very early cable car and one retired more recently.

The top of the hill is also the start of the Wellington Botanic Gardens, so we work our way down through the gardens over the course of the morning. The vexed subject of labelling rears it’s head again, with the result that a lot of plants appear to be called “I don’t know that one” or “I haven’t a clue”. I personally can’t tell you much about the gardens, except it’s full of trees and plants and glasshouses and sculpture. It is however planted on a very steep slope, so it makes my excuses with my own sloping garden look lame. It’s a good long walk down before we reach the cafe at the bottom, but the tea and bun is welcome.

From there we continue downwards on the ‘City to Sea’ walk which winds through the old Wellington cemetery. Because they blasted a motorway right through it in the 1960’s, no-one is buried there now. The bodies were all moved and the monuments and gravestones re-sited along this walk. As we reach the city proper we pass ‘The Beehive’, which is what everyone calls the parliament building. We reach ‘Te Papa’, or ‘The National Museum’ for a late lunch and, yippee, it’s free again. The museum itself is massive – something like 4 football pitches of exhibition space – and there’s no chance we can do it justice in an afternoon, but we still see some neat stuff. There’s a hall dedicated to geology and tectonics, where we experience an earthquake aftershock from inside a house. There’s a whole exhibition dedicated to a Colossal Squid that was fished from the Antarctic Ocean a few years ago and the first to be scientifically examined. The quarter-ton squid itself is the centrepiece in all it’s embalmed glory, and frankly it’s all very icky. Finally, outside there is an entire forest planted, with walkways through the trees and plants and even a series of limestone caves underneath.

Anyway, have to close this now as we have to pack everything away again ready to throw them in the car in the the morning – the ferry sails at 8.30am and we have to report an hour in advance!

Wellington, New Zealand

Another big miles day and another shift to the south – as far south as we can go without falling in the water. Glad that is over and there’s a couple of days without much driving – hopefully none at all tomorrow. There’s a heck of a lot of empty space here in NZ. For someone who likes camping or with a motorhome(*), it would be brilliant. For someone like me who doesn’t stray too far from the nearest latte it’s a big country!

(*) not seen a single caravan here so far.

We started the day in Napier with a brilliant blue sky and the sun bouncing off Hawkes Bay – it was mighty chilly out though. First thing was a drive up to Bluff Point, which overlooks much of Napier city. The views really were outstanding. Looking back the way we had come the previous day it was possible to see snow on the tops of some of the mountains – not sure if they were ones we’d crossed or ones further east, but a reminder how quickly the weather can change here. The morning warmed up as we descended back into Napier and took the walking tour round the central business district (as they call downtown) to look at the Art Deco buildings. As I said yesterday, Napier was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1931, and many of the buildings were rebuilt in the Art Deco style. Somehow they have survived and remain to this day. With pedestrianised streets it makes for a very elegant town centre.

But we had to get moving again – a lot of clicks to cover today and nice weather to do it in. Back out on Hwy. 2 south for an hour or so, we stopped in a little one-street town called Waipawa for lunch. Even a little town like this had a couple of upmarket cafes and some antique shops. Our cafe had it’s own little garden growing herbs and lemons. These little towns vary from the seemingly affluent like Waipawa to some that have little more than a ‘Hotel’ (fancy name for a traditional pub) and are full of empty shops. One town just seemed to consist of closed cafes and shops – now what’s that all about in the middle of a Wednesday afternoon?

We put on some big miles – I stuck the cruise control at 110km/h and just steered down a pretty straight road as we knocked off the towns down the centre of North Island. Dannevirke (big Viking theme going on there), Woodville (sent me off the main road on a fools errand through the town centre), Masterton (a bit obsessed with sheep IMHO), Greytown (looked very nice actually). Then somewhere between Greytown and Upper Hutt (presumably where Jabba lives) we ran into a mountain. Every day I say, bloody hell this is unbelievable, as we hit a road that swoops and turns like the best biking road of all time. Wendy asked why we never see any motorcycles, since these roads would be flooded with them in the UK. Just then 10 big BMW police bikes came the other way, one after the other, and they were definitely having a ball!

Safely over the mountain we descended further into Upper and Lower Hutt and then Wellington. The road became a motorway and we passed the docks where we have to pick up the Picton ferry at silly o’clock on Friday. I had looked up the directions to the hotel the night before. Most places have a list of street names, turn left, turn right, sort of instructions. Not ours – “The motorway flows into Wellington and Oriental Bay is well signposted. The Copthorne Hotel is a large building on Oriental Parade near the Te Papa museum”. All very Zen, eh? But we found it with only one slight missed turn when in true Kiwi fashion they decided to place a single signpost at the last possible minute on a four-lane road junction.

The hotel is stacked up on one of the hills overlooking the harbour. To reach our room we have to ride the lift to the 7th floor, then cross the restaurant lobby and take a different lift up another two floors. The car, luckily, is valet parked behind the hotel somewhere on the 7th. I’ll let them fetch it down when I need it again! The room is not small, but seems small after last night’s vast suite in Napier. The view from the balcony over Wellington harbour is stunning though. We’ve taken a walk along the harbour and though the town for tea. I am quite excited to find that the Te Papa (Our Land) museum is open until the dizzyingly late hour of 9pm tomorrow night. And it’s free, so we just have got to visit. Tomorrow we explore Wellington further. Tonight we’re doing some laundry.

Napier, New Zealand

Another 250km further south by the end of today and the weather is slowly getting noticeably cooler, especially at night. Wellington is still 300km down the road and I daren’t think how far Christchurch is. Weirdly the weather forecast tonight shows Christchurch having a much warmer day than Auckland, which is way, way north. I take comfort from the fact!

We woke up to a sunny day in Rotorua so after brekky we set out to drive around and see what the town was about. We had a look at some of the hot springs in the town and the formal Government Gardens, but then Wendy, whilst reading the brochure for Wai-O-Tapu thermal park, saw that the Lady Knox geyser was due to erupt at 10.15am. Quick fill with petrol and then a mad dash in the car 20 mins down Hwy. 5 to the park. Made it with 5 mins to spare, at which point the incredible timekeeping of the geyser was revealed to be helped along by a ranger chucking some soap powder down the fumarole! ROTFL. Anyway, Lady Knox erupted on schedule and we all photographed her to death.

From there we went down into the park itself. You have probably seen it on the telly; Billy Connolly has been there cracking rude jokes for one. It consists of various circular walks past assorted boiling mud pools, steaming craters and bubbly lakes, all showing signs of thermal activity and all very smelly with sulphurous fumes. We went round about a mile-long walk and it was pretty damn amazing really – lots of pics taken as you can see. It’s hard to describe, since it looks like nothing else on earth. Well worth a couple of hours wandering round IMHO.

Coffee dispatched it was back on to Hwy. 5, 3/4 hour down the road to Taupo. Now this is a nice town right on the edge of Lake Taupo, and is something of a resort town for New Zealanders. We had some lunch here overlooking the lake and although it was beautifully sunny, there were huge rainclouds stacked up over the Ahimanawa Range – guess which way we were heading? Before braving the mountain passes we took a walk round some of the town. It has a real resort feel and I was particularly taken by a McDonnell(*) parked in McDonald’s. I could easily spend more time here – it must be great in the summer when it’s hot. As it is, even in early spring it’s nice.

(*) OK, OK, technically it’s a Douglas DC3, but Douglas did later amalgamate with McDonnell, so let me have my pun, eh?

But now we’re back to following Hwy. 5 all the way to Napier. At first the road climbs through man made pine forests and is straight for long stretches. We blast along at the speed limit even though the weather gradually gets wetter and wetter as we climb. After about 30 mins we start climbing seriously through native forests – and the road twists and turns and climbs and drops – it’s like ten ‘Cat & Fiddles’ one after the other. Even so, the native Kiwis are reluctant to back off the gas and a number of them pass me at wide sections. This switchback ride, which must be brilliant in the sunshine with the right vehicle, goes on for ages before we finally drop down into Hawkes Bay, where the rain fades away and the forest gives way to vineyards.

After a short drive we reach Napier – famous for being a city that was destroyed in an earthquake early in the 20th Century and then rebuilt in a largely Art Deco style. We head for Marine Parade which overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Eventually I spot what I am looking for – The Shoreline Motel – picked pretty much at random from the motel book. It has the biggest room yet – in fact it’s nearly a suite with separate bedrooms, a kitchenette and a lounge. It also faces directly on to the seafront and has free wireless internet – result.

After settling in we go for a walk down Marine Drive. Of course it’s now post 5pm so everything except restaurants are closed. Sigh, some things never change in NZ. Tomorrow we’ll have a decent look round before making tracks to the capital.

Rotorua, New Zealand

Today we have made an enormous jump south to Rotorua – 460km on the car’s clock in one day – that’s heck a lot of driving. Sadly there was no avoiding a drive like that given the things we want to see in the time we’ve got. The trouble with Northland is it’s just so in the wrong direction to everywhere else in NZ. I don’t begrudge it a bit though because it was a really nice place.

After breakfast we filled up with go-gas – petrol is about 1/2 the UK price – then made a quick call in the local Woolworths to see what they had. Just a food supermarket it turns out, but we stocked up with supplies for the journey there anyway. Weather was really beautiful when we said goodbye to Paihia and I was sad to leave. The return journey to Auckland via Highway 1 was a little less easy than the journey up on Saturday. Firstly the road menders had come out to play and we must have gone through at least 20 sets of roadworks in 3 hours. They very rarely stopped the traffic, but they would slow us down from 100km/h to 50km/h for a couple of kilometres, which was a nuisance. Come back in a year or two and the road North will be pristine! Secondly the lorries had appeared, so there was a constant shuffling of cars forwards past the latest lumbering lorry at each dual-carriageway passing place. And finally the weather was sunshine and showers. A lot of both. I would estimate it changed from one to the other every 15 mins, so much so I felt like Horatio Caine in CSI:Miami – sunglasses on; sunglasses off: sunglasses on… etc, etc.

But the motorway to Auckland appeared finally and we blasted through Auckland to the southern service station at Papakura for lunch. There was a craft shop in the service station and Wendy got talking to the woman there about quilting (as you do) and she told us of a quilt shop that was on our route. Resigned looks from me. The sun had come out to play properly at this point and has stayed with us for the rest of the day as we made very good time down the motorway, then expressway, then mere dual carriageway to Hamilton. Hmm, not sure I liked the look of Hamilton – I suppose nowhere looks it’s best from the bypass, but Hamiton looked very American with a US-style industrial strip running either side of the road. Maybe it looks better down by the river? Maybe we’ll get chance to find on the way back up since it’s a handy couple hours from Auckland airport for the day we leave?

Out of Hamilton, still on Hwy 1 for Rotorua and Taupo, about 2 hours down the road we hit Tirau and pretty immediately spot Tirua Quilt Cottage. The owner is just about to shut as it’s a slow day – I told you these buggers shut early – but I think we brighten her day considerably. We can’t carry much weight-wise because of the baggage allowance, but that doesn’t mean we leave empty-handed! That’s Wendy’s b’day pressie sorted out from me, and several friends Xmas pressie sorted out from her!

Leaving Hwy 1 at Tirau, we joint Hwy 5 for Rotorua, which is another hour down the road. It’s single lane, but it’s a 100km/h blast over wooded hills the whole way with no holdups. At first sight Rotorua is very American, with the highway dotted with MaccyD’s, KFC’s and the like, but we turn off onto a lakeside road and go past Kuirau Park. We catch a sight of the thermal bubbly fountain that was on Billy Connolly’s programme, and a whiff of it too! I am tired of driving by now, so when we spot the Grand Hotel Rotorua, I drive straight in. Hmmm, they might have been a little generous with their name as it’s the least ‘grand’ hotel we’ve stayed in so far. However, it’s not at all bad – it’s got everything the other hotels have had, just a little less sumptuous with it. For example the telly is not an LCD for the first time and there’s no internet in the room. If you’ve ever stayed in a Travelodge, it’s a bit like that. The price is a lot less than the others as well. Oh and I have just found I can get a wireless signal in this room from Milly’s Cafe over the road – it’s going to cost me $8 for an hour, but what the hell, live a little, eh?

Just been out for some tea. Rotorua is a lot nicer round the town centre, but of course being after 5pm is completely closed. Well apart from the shops operated by people from Japan/China/Korea et al – if the Kiwi’s aren’t careful they’ll have their country off them!