It's funny the things that remind you of other things. When I was in Auckland there was a certain flowery smell that reminded me of Belize. I have seen people in various places that remind me of my friends back home. While riding in the back of the car, I was reminded of moving from Edmonton to Winnipeg as a passenger in one of two cars laden down with various house plants, a dog, a cat and a guinea pig (I think the cat was in one car and the dog and guinea pig in another, though they all did get along ok). I remember every time we tried to open the car's sunroof to get some air, the cat would howl until we shut it again. I also remember the cat (which was an adopted stray) in a collar with a leash attached - not at all a happy cat for the two-day duration. Mum regaled us of a time, when my sister and I were really young and fighting over the hotly disputed territory known as the back seat, when the Edmonton Police pulled mum over because she did an illegal turn because she was so distracted by the backseat battles. Ah, memories...
Now as I write this part of the blog, I am sitting on the Interislander Ferry from Wellington to Picton as our tour of the North Island has ended and our tour of the South is about to begin. The ferry stirs up vague memories of being on a ferry somewhere in Europe (maybe Dover to somewhere) the day was rough and I was travelling with my family (I was a child at the time, some point in time between the Police incident and the Winnipeg move) and a Uncle, Aunt and cousins (though I don't remember which - I do, however, remember the movie that was playing in the cinema on board, "Ghostbusters". Odd what the mind dredges up from the recesses of memory.
The ferry is quite large and has similar amenities to that of the ferry between Victoria BC and the main land, but about 3 times larger and kitted out with two movie cinemas (currently showing "Australia" and "Madagascar 2", in case you were interested in knowing). We pass through a fair amount of open ocean before winding our way though a group of islands called the Queen Charlotte Islands to reach our destination. Right now as I look out my window, I see open ocean and one lone sailboat under sail.
But enough about the ferry ride, maybe my ramblings about the last several days will be more interesting...
Two days ago (wow, was it only two days ago) we got up early (again, I think our average wake-up time is about 0530hrs, I know that's late for some, but it seems early for vacationers, but there is soo much to see, that early starts are required). We had a nice big breakfast at our B&B before hitting the road to drive from Rotorua to Hastings via various points of interest.
Our first stop was about 45 minutes down the road at Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland and Lady Knox Geyser; which erupts due to the presence of two chambers of water (a cold chamber on top of the hot one) that, when triggered with a surfactant, that beaks the water tension between the two chambers causing the water to mix, steam, and thereby causing the eruption (a nice Park ranger type person does the honours and the Geyser erupts, on queue at 10:15 am daily.
Champagne Pool in Wai-O-Tapu
Lady Knox Geyser
Our picnic lunch stop was at Lake Taupo, the largest lake in NZ, since we wanted to have time to stop and look around at our next rest stop of Napier, we spent very little time in Taupo. After a quick lunch and a short walk along the lakefront, it was on the road again and off to Napier.
Napier was a quaint little town who's main claim to fame (besides being in the centre of some of the best wine growing country in NZ) is it's Art Deco buildings built in the early 1930s following the earthquake and fire in February of 1931 that devastated downtown Napier.
After having a hot chocolate (there was a strong south wind blowing making it feel rather cold), we had a walk around downtown Napier snapping shots of the buildings before it was off to our hotel in Hastings (15 minutes down the road from Napier).
I would have to describe Hastings as Napier's poor cousin; it has some of the Art Deco buildings but lacks the charm of Napier (though it tries to dress itself up with an overabundance of flowerpots and hanging baskets, as if wearing too much makeup would make up for it's shortcomings).
The next morning it was off to Wellington, NZs capital city. The drive took us about 5 hours (four and a half of driving, all by me, I might add) along with a short stop for a coffee (or hot chocolate) in little town called Masterton. There were a lot of side trips we could have done (had we had the time) to places on the coast, but time restrictions had us heading strait (or as strait and the NZ roads allow; 13KM of very twisty roads make me feel using the phrase "direct route" would be more apt) to Wellington.
Due to my skillful driving (ok, gloating a bit there) we had the entire afternoon in Wellington (after a less than scenic picnic lunch in the hotel parking lot). We wandered into downtown and took the Cable car up the side of a hill to have a look at the port of Wellington. Wellington, as well as being the Capital City of NZ, is a port city (and the most southerly city of the North Island). We wandered back down the hill and had a look at the outside of the Parliament Building and wandered back though town, taking in the sights as we went.
We saw no interesting places to eat (it seems that there are cafes that serve breakfast and lunches and that close around 5PM and then there are bars, takeout joints, and very swish restaurants that open about 5PM to serve the dinner crowd, but little in the way of middle-of-the-road restaurants for inexpensive evening meals) so we bought hot, prepared food from the local supermarket and then headed back to the Hotel room for dinner. Since most of our hotels have full kitchens, we've eaten in the room a few times for dinner, make all our breakfasts there and make picnic lunches most days too - cuts down on the costs and it's easier than being in constant search for good places to eat.
Another early morning and we headed off to the Ferry Terminal to catch the ferry to Picton a 3.5 hour crossing (which is about half over now, and I'm going to sign off for now and complete this later after we've had a wander about Nelson and had our evening meal).
We stopped at Picton for lunch (a picturesque little town) and sat in a park on the waterfront and ate yet another picnic lunch. After walking around town for a bit we piled back into the car and headed off to Nelson - we took the scenic route (read really really winding and narrow road) paralleling the North end of the South Island.
Arriving at in Nelson about 4:30PM, we checked into the hotel and then went down to the i Site (the NZ tourist information centre) and booked a day trip to the Able Tasman area for Tuesday (I'm not good at thinking in days of the week).
I had the day off from driving today (and since where here in Nelson until Wednesday morning, I probably won't drive until then) . I'm getting accustomed to the driving on the other side of the road and the concept that wind from the south is cold, not warm and that as we travel further south, the weather will be getting cooler, not warmer. Thus ends another day on the other side of the world.
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