NZ 2.0

Warming up for NZ 2010 – How will it work out?!? Dear God stay tuned!

Busy Busy BKK.

Bangkok, City of Life, according to the slogans draped around the city for us touristy types. I am inclined however to highly agree with the statement though as you’d be very hard pressed to find a quiet moment to yourself here in the heart of Thailand.

I must admit it is entirely different to the pre-judgement I had in my head. I imagined open sewers, rocky dirt roads where homeless people hassle you at every turn and that it would be a highly un-enjoyable weeklong visit. I couldn’t have had a more picture more further from the truth in my mind. While yes Bangkok is a very VERY busy city, it is still clean. Each morning we see street sweepers (actual people street sweepers not the machines) out in their droves going around cleaning up the nights mess. The public transport here is top notch and makes the Luas look like a toy train set. Air conditioned mono rails trains take you about the city for less than 20 baht one way (1 Euro = 45 Baht) so it’s cheap too. The people are friendly and accommodating and while we obviously do stand out as tourists we never felt threatened or in harm’s way and a good dose of common sense should keep you and your belongings very safe. The shopping malls here are on a level we have never seen before, even in New York there was nothing to compare really. Massive complexes, some of which are interconnected via walkways elevated up from the main stem of the traffic and pollution down below so as to save our lungs from complete burn out. Our favourite mall so far has definitely been the Mah Ban Kroon (MBK) which houses 7 floors of near madness. Mobile phones, cameras and everything that can be duplicated under the sun is in this complex. We bought 10 games for the Wii for 25 euro and 5 good quality DVD copies (we checked) for e12.50, a game for PS2/Wii/Xbox etc runs at 100 baht a disc and the same goes for DVD’s and DVD box sets so there’s value to be had alright. We shall make one more trip back there tomorrow to spend the last of our shekels on whatever we can and then commence packing in the evening. Our limo (oh yes!) leaves the apartment suites at 7:30pm and god knows with traffic when we’ll get to the airport but our flight is at 00:35am so we should be safe enough.

Another thing that’s very big here is temples. Being a largely Buddhist based religion they have public and royal temples throughout the city. Small shrines too allow prayer and worship for the regular folk, and this can be seen very easily everyday when out and about and happily co-exists beside the mega malls which house exclusive and expensive brands. We have also visited the Grand Palace where there are many large highly detailed sculptures and monuments to the current King and King’s passed. The King is very highly regarded here and must not be spoken ill of lest you find yourself in prison!

It has been a definite change from what we are used to but a very enjoyable experience all the same and although not somewhere I would spend more than a week myself, I would come back again in 10-20 years just to see what had changed (if anything) and how much more modern Bangkok would look.

It’s hard for us to believe this is the last few days of our trip and will definitely be something we will never forget (especially with all the bloody photo’s I took!) so it will be a bit of a shock to the system to being back in the cold of Ireland after having solid reliable 30 degrees or there about for the last 2 months! But I’m sure we’ll manage somehow eh! I even bought a dedicated Curry spoon for my market curry here in Thailand so I’ll be putting that to good use when I get back. Oh and indeed Eddie Rockets will be visited too…

Roaming around Oz.

Today we arrived in Canberra, after leaving Wondonga this morning as even at 9am we could feel the heat starting to build up. As I type now it has dropped in temperature to about 26/27 degrees from 34 but is still very humid. We are staying at the Canberra Motor Village for our two nights here, what can I say, bit of a dump really but not a long stay so I won’t complain (Well I will, Ants, buzzing creatures that sound like small micro-lights landing in the driver’s seat, dust roads and no kitchen or tv room!). Canberra itself is the capital of Australia and is a very strange place. According to the sign’s it has a population of 325,000 but arriving in town earlier at lunch time it was eerily quiet. We grabbed a pub lunch which was excellent, 2 good large pizzas (on par with Fat Freddy’s on Quay Street) and 2 pints of soft drink for $26 (13 euro!). The city “centre” is a weird layout, kind of an oval with two roads going around it. We’re still not sure if we saw the city centre proper but it’s not that big a place that you could miss it and not notice. Anyway, we’re back at the camp site now relaxing for the evening, any major exertion just leads to sweating and I’m running out of clean clothes due to that fact… so yes perhaps time for laundry, shouldn’t take long for stuff to dry!

Tomorrow we plan to kill time (as that’s what we find we’re doing here mostly, not sightseeing but killing time till we leave) by visiting a large shopping centre and the National Zoo & Aquarium which is only a short drive away. Also there is a large war memorial and public area / gardens around so we can pass the afternoon easily enough tomorrow I reckon by visiting them.

We only have 4 days left here and are already looking forward to Thailand. Basically no travelling really (no driving that is) as we’re staying in the city centre so to speak. It will mostly be shopping I imagine although our bags are already bulging at the seams but we can cram some more goods in eh! The weather and climate in Oz is good preparation for Bangkok I’m sure as it’s probably going to be just as hot and even more humid.

As far as the van goes, it’s going alright. The gears are a bit sticky and annoying at times but once in 5^th gear and on the free way its fine. Petrol here is $1.16 at the moment so about 60c euro a litre which is great value! Especially as we’re going through it pretty quickly when motoring along at 100+km’s an hour for most of the day.

Not much other news to be honest, the holiday parks here are very depressing, certainly we didn’t know how well we had it in New Zealand with the Top 10 parks. Compared to here even the worst one in NZ beats these hands down. But we did pay $60 for 2 nights so 30 euro isn’t too bad but I at least expect clean toilets…..

Right O, I’m off to mess with my iphone!

We’re in Auzztraaalia.

Hello! We landed in Australia yesterday and after a night in a Holiday Inn, we’re on the road again! From Sydney today , we drove south heading for Melbourne as our destination. We’re pretty well cramming in a lot into 7-8 days of driving getting to and from Melbourne, round trip of roughly 2,100km’s so a fair amount. We passed through Wollongong and Nowra today and finally came to rest in Batemans Bay for the night. We’re using the Australian version of the New Zealand Top10 Holiday parks which over here are called the Big4. So will suit us as it has all the usual amenities etc. Not much else really, its hot, very hot. 30c with us today and 40+c in Adelaide and Melbourne but we’re hoping it will have passed by the time we get there. But who knows, might be in time for a heat wave, how nice!

Travelling in a rented Backpacker Nomad campervan which is slightly larger than our last one, also we can now stand up! It’s a manual so takes a bit of re-adjusting back to it after having gotten used to an automatic.

Anyways, thats it for the moment (if anyones still reads these!!?)

Van is sold! That is all.

So, sold the van to that original German couple for $4,000 but not too bothered. Thats a pretty good price all in all and I don’t have to sit in the van for 8 hours a day in 30 degree heat now trying to sell it or worrying about whether we’ll shift it before Wednesday morning. Didn’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth so to speak. So after meeting them a good 20 minutes out of town at the backpackers they were staying in, they had a mechanic look it over, chec kthe cambelt and selas and stuff like that. It was about 45 minutes or so of mechanical tinkering but it got the all clear and thumbs up. So we transferred ownership and I received $4,000 cash in hand which was nice .

So now I have to get to ordering Thai Baht and Australian Dollars and we have to prepare to leave New Zealand for good next week. That, I am not looking forward to so much.

Nearly time to Leave…

Well, here we are, finally in Christchurch nearing the end of our stay in New Zealand. We left Timaru this morning and headed on our final trip of any real meaning, north to Christchurch. On our first day in Timaru we gave the van a right thorough cleaning, for the best part of 4 hours so it looks spick and span now!
We arrived in ChCh at about 10am, headed straight to the holiday park where we have booked a cabin for two nights till Saturday morning. We dumped all bags and everything of value into the cabin and made a dash for the Backpackers Car Market. So checked in, we sat in the yard from 11am until 5pm. That was today, Thursday, where we have the van listed at $4,750. So we had a few people looking, one German couple made an offer of $4,000 which I rejected as I think $4,250 is as low as I will go but we will see. $4,000 in my pocket and 5 days to see Christchurch may be better than waiting it out for an extra $250 or whatever. Still an offer on the first day isn’t a bad start so staying positive. Definately our van is the best there, clean and professionally fitted out. Has received glowing comments from passer’s and the wacky English Stoner who over see’s the whole operation seemed very impressed with it.
Well we’ll see how the next few days go, I’d love to have it sold by Monday and have a day or two to get some Oz dollars and Thai Baht before leaving, plus I’d like to do some spending here while I’m at it! The value here is much greater than converting back to euro so spend it while I got it!
It has been a great van and will be sorely missed, it treated us well and hopefully will be a dream vehicle for some lucky couple out there who just have to see it yet. (And depart with a significant amount of cash)

A Long time since an update

Well the last update I gave was when we had arrived in Wanaka and set up camp for the day. Since then we have visited Queenstown, for 3 days where we were put up in the Millennium Hotel. It was a very VERY good thing we were staying in a hotel as on our way to the local New World the van sprung a leak. Unbeknownst to us at that particular moment was that one of the radiator hoses connected to the engine had a split in it and was leaking fluid. After a lot of hissing and engine over heating we finally got back to the hotel. I immediately started looking for mechanics in the area, (not a whole lot let me tell you in Queenstown!) I had eventually compiled a list of names which I set about contacting, the first who hung up on me pretty rudely (Alpine Auto, Queenstown!) but I got through eventually to Fusion Auto and spoke to Daniel. This guy gave me more help in 5 minutes over the phone than any of the others had. Bearing in mind all our disasters happen on a Friday night or Saturday morning (typical) so we had low expectations of finding somewhere open. He arranged for us to get to his workshop early Saturday morning and hopefully get it sorted. So we left for his place the next morning at 8am…but our van only made it half way before overheating and we had to pull over to the side of the road or risk major damage. The radiator was completely empty at this stage, not good. We had some mixed communications and were meant to be AT the mechanics at 8am, so we had to wait till Sunday morning as he had plans for the day (I was annoyed at the time but he explained the next morning so it was all ok, turns out he had a one off opportunity to buy a specific dog puppy he had been looking for in Christchurch that morning so he had to leave ASAP) so we sucked it up, left the van at the side of the road for the rest of the day and night until the following morning when it could be looked at. It was a long 6km walk back to the hotel, plus we had to walk it back again to the van on Sunday morning.
Anyways, long story short he called out to us roadside on Sunday morning (how many Irish mechanics would do that??) at about 9.30am where he spotted the issue (we still didn’t know what it was at this stage) and he made a temporary fix which lasted us all the way to Invercargill where I ordered the replacement hose part and fitted it myself with relative ease. So a big thank you to Daniel and Fusion Auto in Q’Town who saved out bacon and was a pretty nice guy all round.
Our last act of tourism in Queenstown was a hot air balloon ride. A 4am rise to get the go ahead for the all clear for takeoff meant we would be picked up by mini-bus at 5am from the hotels front door. Not a cheap thing to do balloon rides let me tell you. $700 for the two of us but at the end of the day we won’t be back again and certainly it isn’t something you do every day. The views were spectacular along with the finale of champagne breakfast, it all added up to a great experience. Plenty of photo’s too!
So from Queenstown, it was on to Te Anau, our base for exploring Milford Sound. I was a bit nervous about the 2 hour drive to Te Anau with our newly patched van being put to the test and we had every finger and toe crossed that it would hold until we could get the new part in Invercargill. It held fine! Te Anau is a small, lake side town which in itself has very little to do. There is a DOC aviary nearby with some native birds that are being rehabilitated before being released back into the wild so it made for a bit of a trek and view.
The following morning it was another 2 hour drive to Milford for our 10:30am cruise that I had booked. The first 90 km’s of the trip were fine, lovely motorway with level tarmac and a real shock as we thought it would be an awful road. And then the last 30km’s arrived. Windy stringy in parts steep like you’ve never seen and with a gapping chasm of a tunnel for nearly 1.5km’s it did not make for a pleasant driving experience, all the more worrying as all I could think about was the radiator hose exploding and us being in the middle of nowhere and being proper f*****! But we made it to Milford fine, and a little early. We passed the time with coffee and breakfast before boarding our cruise boat. A good mix of people on board and a bright sunny morning made for an enjoyable experience which lasted about 2 ½ hours altogether. Once over it was another 2 hour return journey back to Te Anau where we would spend another night before moving on to the larger town of Invercargill.
Invercargill is supposed to be a town of Scottish decent although we didn’t see much of that really. Our main priority was get the new radiator hose and replace the old one and be done with the whole saga that felt like it was now dragging on forever.
The part had to be over night couriered to the Mitsubishi parts dealer I rang so luckily we were there for 2 days. We went to Bluff, the claim to being the southerly most point on the southern island and completing the old saying here of “From Reinga to Bluff” which we now have completed. The next morning the repair was carried out and all went fine. Invercargill is not a great place really, nice to visit for a day but after that it gets a bit stale. From there we moved on to Dunedin, a town that looked to have a lot more going for it.
In Dunedin, we again had booked in for 2 nights as we were a fair bit ahead of schedule so had a few days to make up. The city itself is quite nice, very rustic old buildings and on our first morning there we went to the Cadbury Factory which was a sheer joy for obvious reasons! The weather for the two days was not the best. Heavy drizzle, rain and thunder were what we got much to our annoyance as a damp van, is a smelly van. On our second day there we went out the Otago Peninsula to visit the Royal Albatross Centre in the hope of seeing a few more of these large sea birds. The centre was a good way to while away an hour, plenty of information and a very good guide made it quite the learning experience too. We were only able to view the nesting Albatrii (made up word I know for Plural Albatross’s) as seeing as they are protected, you only get to go so close to them under DOC regulation. Still it was well worth the trip even though it was misty and not very pleasant; it at least got us out and about.
From Dunedin we moved on today to Oamaru, passing the famous Moreki Boulders along the way which I managed to get a few photo’s of while getting soaked in the process as the tide came in quite quickly. We sit here now in the Oamaru Top 10 Park listening to the rain on the roof, only light showers though but rain all the same while I type this. I’m wishing it all clears up a bit more as I’m hoping, fingers crossed, to do a helicopter flight from Mount Cook Village over the mountain of the same name which should be fantastic all the same. Well we’ll see how that goes eh?

From Kaikoura – >Christchurch –> Arthurs Pass –> Greymouth –> Franz Josef Glacier –> Haast –> Wanaka.

Well from the imaginative title above you can gather that a lot of travelling has gone on since my last posting. Arriving in Wanaka today about 1pm to glorious un-adulterated sunshine and 28 degree heat it made such a difference to the suffering we’ve gone through the last two days. But I’ll go back a bit further first. Leaving Kaikoura after getting to do some Dolphin watching but unfortunately no whale watching, we set off across the near middle of the south island on Highway 73, through Arthur’s Pass. This was a long drive and mountainous roads with steep twists and turns along the way made it nerve racking enough. IT had some fantastic scenery along the way though and indeed the trip went a lot faster than we had thought it would. We had planned to stop more than ¾’s of the way across the country in a small “town” called Jackson’s. Well I call it a town, a holiday park and a tavern and that’s it. Not to belittle the place though as this park, remote as it was had fantastic facilities and a very helpful and informative host who put us onto a local walking track which we completed later that day.

They had a courtesy van which dropped us down the road to the tavern where we had a very good (read: expensive) dinner but was well worth it. Jackson’s Retreat was the name of the place and indeed it had some of the best toilets/ showers we have come across yet. These things tend to become important as time goes on without your own loo to call upon. Depending on public toilets is not great so when you find a holiday park with good clean bathroom’s it’s a huge plus.

The following morning we headed out to finish the west bound journey and arrive at Greymouth town. We got there pretty early in the morning, the first day back from the Christmas break for most trader’s so the town was pretty quiet until about 11am when everything seemed to get back into the swing of things. The town itself is the biggest on the West Coast, comprising about 13’000 people or thereabouts. We were only staying one night so during the day of our arriving, we headed north to Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks. Touristy and busy but worth the excursion as there’s not a whole lot to do in Greymouth central really. It’s pretty much a seaside town of not too much substance.

We stayed that night at the less than agreeable Greymouth Top 10 park, located beside the sea and next door to a graveyard, not a small one either, plenty of deceased folk to keep you company.

Still it did give some nice photos that evening at sunset so it made up for it a small bit.

In the morning we pushed on towards Franz Josef Glacier. We were planning on staying here for two nights at the fantastically named rainforest resort holiday park. Fantastic though, it was not. We arrived to Franz Josef, bright eyed and full of enthusiasm for all the touristy entrapments that were to offer. I immediately booked a ½ day hike up the glacier for the next morning and had although the weather was rough we hoped it might clear up. It did not.

A slight aside, the West Coast of the South Island has a lot of rain; I’ll repeat that, a LOT. More than London, Los Angles, Ireland! There’s a statistic somewhere in my brain for the actual amount but I can’t find it. So a lot of rain left us with a damp van, misty winds and a bleak outlook of the town. It rained (a misty rain interspersed with heavy downpours) for a solid 36 hours. I cancelled the ½ day hike the morning we were due to do it, with much argument on my behalf as they have a strict “No cancellations” policy…psssh yeah right.

I also booked a helicopter flight around Mt. Cook and above the glaciers for the following morning as well so we held out the second night in the town on the hope that it might clear up for us a small bit allowing the flight to take place. That afternoon we drove to the Franz Josef glacier ourselves and hiked a good bit, through glacial waters (bloody FREEZING) and enjoyed the views. Quite busy it was too! We got to spot some Kea Alpine Parrots attacking someone’s car (they pick at wiper blades, window seals etc) which brought a cheeky smirk to our faces (at least it wasn’t our van!)

We settled in again at the rainforest resort and stuck out another damp night.

This morning we arose at 6am hoping that the weather might allow us at least a 30 minute flight around the peaks to get some good photo’s and views. Alas it did not. I was told there were good views of the glaciers but the mountains were clouded over, so I decided not to bother going ahead with it in the end as it was too costly not to be seeing what I really wanted to. We’ll be passing through Mt. Cook Village later on so hopefully then we can have a second go and might be lucky weather wise.

We left Fox Glacier Township (21 km’s away from Franz Josef where the Helicopter co. in question was based) and started the near 300km’s drive to Wanaka. I drove the whole way today which wasn’t as bad as I expected, was thinking there would be more mountainous roads but they levelled out after passing through Haast Township. It misted & rained the whole way, until we got within 30-40km’s of Wanaka. Then it just…stopped. Rain gave way to sunshine, heat in the air and all was right with the world again!

So we are now at our base in Wanaka, the Alpine something or other holiday park. Compared to the place in Franz Josef it’s like the Hilton. Just had my first shower in 3 days and am now basking outdoor’s at a small picnic table typing this up in the 28 degree’s of oh so very nice sun!

Tomorrow we plan to visit Wanaka’s Puzzling World attraction on the way to Queenstown. We have 3 nights in a hotel there courtesy of my parents (thanks mum and dad!) where we have already booked a 5am balloon flight for Saturday morning so looking forward to that too along with the usual adrenalin rides and the likes. So fingers crossed that the weather stays positive and nice and sunny eh! Only thing is, 5am balloon flight, 4am get up timeL.

New Island, Same ‘Ol Van.

 

Well after a nice break in Wellington over Christmas, its back to being on the road again. We spent five days in Windy Welly, staying at the Intercontinental 5 Star Hotel. IT was a lovely place to stay and although my credit card took a whomping it was a nice break to be in one place for a good few days (with our own toilet and shower!). Valet parking of the van was another added expense but for the security of having the van parked away out of sight it was worth it. Wellington is a bit of a one trick city so to speak. Sure it has the Bee Hive Parliament building and a few other attractions, the Cable Car and Te Papa museum to name a few along with a pretty condensed city central shopping area which is handy, but after 5 days it becomes a bit mundane and slightly routine. We found we made the right choice in living in Auckland for the length of time we did, a six month period in Wellington may have been tremendous overkill.

Gripes aside we did enjoy our time there and in the Lower Hutt Valley. We met a friend of Caroline’s from work, and had him over for tea. Likewise he had us over for tea the following night! (Was night not to think about what to cook, and washing dishes for a change). A few days later we arranged to meet old friends of my father’s in the city centre, and had a good chat for nearly an hour and a half, considering we had never met them before this, the meeting went very well and we were glad of the chit chat.

Christmas day itself was spent firstly swapping presents between the two of us, followed by breakie and a walk around (yet again) the now ghost like Wellington CBD. Much to our surprise, the main museum, Te Papa, was open 10-6 on Christmas Day, so gave us a good opportunity to have a look around it and see the new exhibit they recently got, the Giant Squid. Ever for December 25^th, it was verrry busy which caught us off guard.

After our break time in Wellington, it was time to move on. On the morning of the 28^th of January we had a ticket booked for the two of us and van upon the Interislander ferry to the South Island. Departing at 8:35am, it was an early rise but we got there in plenty of time and were safely aboard and ready to get under way. A rather large ship indeed, stocked to the brim with campervans and tour buses alike. Also motorbikes, cars and station wagons a plenty. It was a cracking day for the crossing, which in itself is meant to be one of the most scenic in the world so I was looking forward to some decent views once we crossed the Cook Strait and entered the Marlborough Sound’s on the way to the ferry terminal at Picton.

Early on in the voyage, I had readied my D3 camera in the event of capturing a few photos’ should the moment present itself. This seemed to rouse the interest of another German tourist who had the previous model, the Nikon D2x (all technical blabber I know but bear with me.) Whilst I was standing beside Caroline with camera strung around neck, he would invade our personal space, literally, and stand not half a foot away and stare at the camera. This must have happened 2-3 times, like he was taking notes on it. Several times later I was standing on the deck looking out when he would swing his lens straight into my field of view and very nearly hitting me in the face with it, start shooting off photos’. I paid him no heed but he was dying for some attention or something. The journey was 3 hours long, and Caroline left her sea legs back in Wellington so was down below deck trying to sleep away the sea sick feeling.

The time passed pretty quickly I must say. The scenery was indeed spectacular along the way and well deserved of its title as a great ferry ride. Once we depart in Picton, we had a look around, quite a nice sea side town. Pretty much a tourist haven and backpacker stop over as the ferry is probably the biggest business in town. From Picton we carried on towards Nelson city where our first overnight stop in the South Island was planned for. It was a winding sea cliff top road which brought us there, arriving around late lunch time we set off in search of food. We settled for some Italian place which we definitely hadn’t high hopes for but as with everything, turned out pretty damn good!

We had only laid out a loose plan at that stage for what we were to be doing for our last month of touring but later that night we had a more solid one worked out and ready to put in to action! An early rise on the 29^th meant a drive towards the town of Kaiteriteri near the Abel Tasman National Park. This is the launching town for ventures in to the park and a hotspot for New Zealander’s going on holidays of their own. When we got there it was early morning, roughly 8:30/9am, and upon arriving we booked a book ride up the length of the coast to see the views and a few kayaker’s and trampers along the way. The ride itself was a 3 hour return journey which started at 10:30am and got us back around lunchtime, and by that point it seemed that everyone and his mother had come to town! The place was heaving! Heavy tan’s and speed boats were the order of the day but we were leaving all that behind to head for the Top 10 at Motueka town, about 15km’s from Kaiteriteri. The following morning (today the 30th) we were up bright and early again (very luckily actually as we got the last spot in the park that night, the south island seems to be much busier that the north) to get underway again and drive towards Lake Roroiti and get a few photos’. We seem to be getting to all the picturesque places along the way at least! Once we left the Nelson Lake Reserve area we continued our drive on to Blenheim, passing through major vineyard country. The plains we were driving along were lined either side, sometimes for 10-15km’s at a time with rows upon rows of manicured grape vines growing up 6 foot wooden poles. Certainly wine in this area is a big business as there were some nice accompanying homes and processing facilities to match the large land crops too. Blenheim Township was a bustling little hive with a square and smaller streets running around it. We stopped off and bought a few items (board shorts, flip flops’ essentials really!) and then made our way to the rest stop for the night. The weather today was scorching, it felt like mid twenties and lead us to stocking up on a lot of water as its never good to run out when your miles away from a shop (the same with petrol).

So tomorrow we head for Kaikoura for two nights. There are some nice walks around the vicinity and it’s the Whale Watching and Dolphin Watching capital of the pacific, if not the world. So we plan to stagger a cruise to spot the wild-life each day, and a spot of walking to weather permitting. That’s assuming we can, as its New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.

Napier and beyond

Well bit of a drought of blog posts for the last while. Lack of a decent internet connection and prolonged daytime driving, plus the whole having to take out and put away the laptop coupled with my sloth like lifestyle have contributed to this fact.

We have since left Taupo, where Caroline did her adventurous skydive from 15,000 feet upon high. Very impressive photo’s to mark the occassion so seemingly was well worth the money. May consider doing it in Queenstown, we’ll see how it plays out.

From Taupo we headed east towards Napier. A dull and dreary road really, 140 odd kilometre’s of nothing at all. Napier itself was a bit of a one horse town/city. Art Deco modelling was the order of the day after an earthquake levelled the original city and the twonship decided on the retro look for the new order. A nice place to while away a day mind you so was worth the trip. From there it was on to neighbouring Hastings, litterally 10 minutes away. A town/city of comparable size to Napier, but not as fancy. Only breezed through there really, onto another town nearby called Havelock North. Keeping in mind that this is hardcore wine country, Havelock is the blonde haired rich wife town comprised of Lattes and Land Rover’s. We ascended a peak nearby which gave pretty spectacular views which seemed to dwarf the van which was parked in the distance. Also we were buzzed by a low flying plane which added to the overall feeling of being up very high.

From there we decided that seeing as it was 12 midday and we had seen most of Hastings (where we were planning to stay the night) it would be hard to kill that amount of time really. We drove on back West across country to Palmerston North to have a look, visited Feilding and from there back south in Wellington direction, stopping overnight at Otaki Beach HolidayPark.

Otaki Beach seemed better on paper than in the flesh but provided a better rest bite stop than other alternatives. We pushed south again to Lower Hutt, nearly 15-20 minutes drive outside of Wellington central to spend the night at there Top 10 resort. It was now nearing the time to panic and rush buy Christmas presents for each other. On the 23rd we went to Wellington central to get our respective gifts. This was a day of panic and high blood pressure. I was searching for a particular mobile phone for Caroline who had mentioned in passing that she would like it. Apparently gold dust was easier to find that a shop stocking an LG Viewty mobile phone! After 3 hours hovering between a plethora of stores, finally a very helpful guy in a vodafone store told me there was 1 left in their Lower Hutt store! Again a dash back to Lower Hutt and a dash up through a Shopping Centre escalator to make sure I was the one who got that phone! Happy Ending, I did. So after stopping at the gift wrap station, to make sure Caroline had no idea what was going to be given to her I was finally finished!

So now as I type this we are in our room here at the Intercontinental Hotel Wellington, very nice, very swish! Van parked below (valet @ $30 a day!) still it’s a nice break and worth the exorbitant cost, plus a good breakfast everyday makes the difference :D

We plan to have lunc h at a local restaurant which we booked in advance, so we shall see the Kiwi take on a Turkey dinner. After that it will be a walk about the CBD seeing as it’s pretty much a ghost town now at the moment so we can see if there’s anything open (which I doubt!).

Hope everyone has a very Happy Christmas, keeps the antacid’s handy, and enjoys the Christmas Dinner!