19th to 2nd Oct NZ

Today is Tuesday 2nd October and we are crossing to the South Island and needless to say the wind is blowing. The crossing is going to be rough I think! (3rd Oct, How wrong I was, calm and sunny even if a bit chilly) After leaving the Coromandel we headed South visiting Rotorua, a tourist hot spot because of the amount of thermal activity around the lake. Hot bubbling mud and geysers. Last time we where in NZ we visited all the must see’s.

As a town or city it is a little bit seedy not somewhere we wanted to stay. We drove on headed for Taupo, staying at a holiday park with its own thermal feed plunge pool. Ahhhh a warm bath at last!! Lake Taupo is the largest inland lake in the North Island with amazing views of the National park which includes Mt. Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe. I had imagined I might fish or we would take a boat trip. Not to be, but I did play target golf in the lake and very nearly funded this whole trip, if only the hole was a little bit bigger I surly would have won the $10,000 jackpot.

Onward to Napier, what an interesting town/city. This town/city thing I should explain my confusion. In the UK we give city status if it has a cathedral, Sally and I have decided that in NZ to attain city status it has to have a drive-thu McDonalds!!! We went to the botanical gardens, did a walk through the art-deco streets and climbed the Te Mata peak just out Hastings looking back over the Hawkes Bay.

Decided to stay at a “free campsite” that night & went to the i centre to get some info, only to discover in Napier Borough you need a “responsible camper ” sticker (at a cost of $170), every single van in the park had one, so we thought we’d better not risk the fine & drove off to find somewhere else to stay for the night, it was quite late by now. Geoff drove for a while & we came across a lane, thought that would be ok, just got to the end when the biggest 3 dogs you’ve ever seen came running out of a field, okaaaay won’t stay here then!! There was no where for Geoff to turn around so he had to reverse all the way back up the lane. Drove on some more still no where suitable, it’s getting dark now!! Then I saw a layby, off the road, plenty of space, & even a couple of piles of gravel to hide the van behind….perfect!! Cooked dinner had a drink, played some cards, settled down for the night, when Geoff decided he wasn’t happy about staying there, so off we set again, me refusing to get out of bed!! Geoff finally found a lane that led to a campsite area, only 140 yards away from the gravel pit!! Oh well tomorrow we’ll pay for a camp site!!

Time to visit friends, Katie, Nick and boys (Max and Zac)- in Fielding.

The Fry’s Brent, Jo and girls (Ashley and Kayla)- in Lower Hutt

along with Judith and Matthew also in Lower Hutt. (Matthew you need to upload your photo)

Fielding is a smaller town on the way down to Wellington, we drove through the Matawatu Gorge only recently opened again after landslips which destroyed parts of the road.

The Gorge is a gap between the Ruahine Mountain range and the Tararua Range but where the descending Pacific Plate meets the Continental Crust of the Austrailian Plate. Fraught with danger for us the intrepid explorers of the open road. We stayed one night with Katie and Nick and invited ourselves back the following w/end. Onward again to Lower Hutt. Met with Judith and Matthew, “Judith” if you are reading this I have to say your 30Kg comment absolutely cracks me up when ever it comes to mind. Te-He. A lovely meal in Petone, authentic Turkish what else in NZ. Matthew also writes on a blog of his own and as an author of 30 books or so I hope he won’t be to critical with mine. Sally sends Christmas letters to all our far away friends. Judith neglected to tell her she moved 4 years ago!!! Hope the people in her old house have enjoyed them!!! We have also met a smashing young couple from Northern Ireland who are in another camper, keen to sample some of the local wines. We stayed in Porirua with them and we all sampled the local wine, red, white & cider!! a good night,also learnt a lot about the situation past and present in Northern Ireland. After a days tramping (a walk) to Butterfly creek one of Sally’s places that she remembers as kids, her and Jason used to go for days out, dam building etc. It is a great place on the East side of the bay of Wellington. Well maintained with paths and bridges all over the place unlike in the days when Sally went there with her family.

“Sally here”

The next day we met Mr Harris, my old class teacher from Hutt Valley High School, he hadn’t really changed much, it was great to catch up on old times, I had an old class photo & he was able to tell me all the kids names & what most of them were up to. One of the Maori kids Phil Proctor, played for the All Blacks and is now involved in the coaching team! One of the girls Katriona came back to HVHS school to do her teacher training, her & Fred married, she now teaches at the school and after lunch we were given a tour of the school by Katriona. It was brilliant I remembered quite a few buildings my old classroom, hall & the gym. We also met Ms Hannan who was my social studies teacher & is still teaching!! We were also allowed to go into the archiving room & I found my old year book plus another class photo from 1977 which me, Judith, Jo, Brent and Katriona were in, we’ve not changed a bit!!!

It was quite a surreal day but I loved it! We spent the evening with Jo & Brent & their girls showing them all the pictures from school and had a great evening reminiscing.

“STILL CHILLIN”