Sunday 24th December
Sandra:
It was time to hit the road again to make the final jump to just
north of Wellington where we would be spending Christmas period before taking
the ferry to the South Island on 27th December. It was a good job that Richard booked the
motel at the beginning of the year as the place we are staying at is fully
booked. It is easy to see why, the rooms
are scrupulously clean, air conditioning, laundry facilities and a swimming
pool and small play area for children. I
was pleased to see that there was sufficient cooking facilities that we would
be able to make an approximation of a Xmas Dinner – roast pork leg, pre-cooked
and vacuum packed would heat up nicely in the electric oven cooker. Carrots and new potatoes would cook on the
conduction hob in the spotlessly clean pans.
A small hiccup when the back ring failed to work properly, so although
dinner would be slightly longer in preparation, no matter.
Over the dinner the previous evening we’d looked at options for our first stop on the South Island. New Year and just after was already sorted – booked some time ago – but we had three nights to fill. Kaikoura was roughly half way between the ferry terminal at Picton, and Christchurch where we’d be spending New Year. Trev and I stayed there and it was a fab place. No such luck this time though, what was still available was at silly prices – twice and even three times what we had been paying. Out of the question.
The following morning after brekky – and as we had time to kill, we spread a map out and each got to work on our phones. The result, a stop in Blenheim then two nights in Cheviot. Both still more than we really wanted to pay but it was peak holiday time and to be expected. The Agoda app at least saved us a bit.
Sandra:
Anyway, back to the route - we left Whanganui just before 10am as we did not have far to go today. We stopped at a lovely little coffee shop just by the beach in Foxton, two lovely coffees were bought and we parked up overlooking the beach, duly finishing the Digestive biscuits we had bought not long after we arrived. There was a sand dune right in front of the car so we got out and strolled over to the equivalent of a RNLI building and a surf training club. There were some lovely benches and we chatted to a couple of ladies who had followed us into the coffee shop. They had a lovely dog with them too, fusses and a nice chinwag were unfortunately curtailed by an almighty downpour.
Dinner that night was from a takeout roast dinner café run by a Chinese husband and wife. It was a lovely meal and went down a treat. I had roast pork and Richard had roast beef. We then settled down for a watching of a favourite Carry on Film – Carry on at your Convenience. Always good for a giggle and a nice relax. A good night’s sleep was had and we were ready for Xmas Day.
Another find on Google Maps – Ben’s Roasts. Most of the reviews were good but you can’t help focussing on the poor ones. We need not have worried, it was superb – tasty and a decent plateful for around a tenner each. Much cheaper than eating out - this a long trip and we need to go steady. The accompanying Kiwi merlot was good too.
Monday 25th December
A leisurely start, I must say it felt odd being Christmas Day, not least being 13 hours ahead of those at home, spending it in a motel room and, whilst the weather wasn’t great, still being able to go around in shorts and a t-shirt. Christmas certainly seems lower key here which is fine by me. Pretty much everything still shuts but I don’t feel it’s being force fed like at home – probably helped by the fact that we’ve largely avoided TV and radio. It’s still a family time clearly but a roast turkey clearly isn’t top of the list – in fact in our visits to the supermarket we’ve not seen any. Nice legs of lamb though – for just eleven quid or so. Proper cooking facilities and we’d have been tempted.
Late morning we headed into Wellington – a 45 minute drive. I wanted to show Sandra a couple of viewpoints that were easily accessible by car. First, Mount Victoria:
Then a drive across the city to the botanical gardens, adjacent to the cable car’s highest point:
Wellington was my favourite city in New Zealand last time and it still is – it has a nice compact and unpretentious feel. I fondly remember when Trev and I stayed here for the cricket - England v New Zealand in a Test match at the lovely Basin Reserve ground. After a late start due to rain England won inside 4 days. I even got to shake the hand of legendary umpire Steve Bucknor too:
Anyway, back to the present. There's so much more to see so whether we will have time to explore more fully when we return to the North Island towards the end of January remains to be seen.
As Sandra mentioned, dinner was good then a lazy evening ensued. I did some sums and was pleased to work out that the Elantra was returning around 45mpg. Pretty good for a 2 litre auto I thought, with a boot full of luggage. Maybe my expectations were out of date but I was quite impressed, considering how often we’ve visited filling stations, but then we are racking up the kilometres – 1,930 so far, or about 1,200 miles.
We also started to look ahead to the rest of our trip, how much time we would have on the South Island before the ferry back, and how much we could get to see at a comfortable pace. Balancing quantity with quality if you like.
Tuesday 26th December
Sandra:
Another leisurely start to the day – the gift of having 3 nights in one motel. We had picked up some tourist leaflets on the way and two had stood out – not least because they were open on Boxing Day and we assumed that the majority of shops etc, would still be closed.
First up was a visit to, you guessed it, Southward Car Museum – about a 20 minute drive from our motel and looked very well run. We were not to be disappointed in any way and for the next couple of hours we looked at a great range of all types of motor car, steam engines and some quirky objects too. Richard’s photos will show you a taste of them.
If you are interested in reading the back story to the museum, opened in 1979 by Sir Len & Lady Vera Southward; they truly were pioneers of their time and much more detail can be found at www.southwardcarmuseum.co.nz Museum is fully accessible with lifts and plenty of seats and also interactive exhibitions/tv snippets to watch too. There are cars starting from the earliest days of motorised vehicles up to the present day. I found an Austin 7 which my father proudly drove until he sold it in order to buy his and Mum’s first house. A Vespa was purchased until I arrived! Anyway I digress, that would be my favourite ‘older’ car for obvious reasons, the most up-to-date one I most liked was the McClaren F1 car – yes a beautiful car inside and out but for me, and I expect many people totally impractical as I would need a hoist to get in and out as you are essentially sitting on the floor!
There was also a beautifully preserved Isetta – this was the first car my parents bought when I was born.
It was a very eclectic mix indeed. I was interested to see what was arguably an early hybrid car. Instead of a gearbox, the engine was coupled to a generator which powered an electric motor – much like many older – and maybe newer – diesel locomotives. It wasn’t very successful because, as you see from the information panel it cost over ten times as much as a Ford Model T.
There was a small gift shop and café serving good coffee so, unlike our usual pattern, we had coffee afterwards! There is also a large theatre to one side which appeared to put regular shows on during the year and is also the proud owner of a Wurlitzer Organ – which rises out of the stage like the one in Blackpool Tower. I would have loved to hear that play – memories of a child young enough to stand on Dad’s feet whilst we were unceremoniously waltzed round the dance floor came to mind!
We then moved slightly nearer the motel again – this time to visit Queen Elizabeth Park and also home to a heritage tram attraction. The park itself is the NZ equivalent of an SSSI and is undergoing rewilding and preservation of indigenous flora and fauna. It is very well laid out and good paths and facilities are around the site. There are also a couple of US Marine Memorials which commemorate the strong links between them and the ANZAC troops in the several wars they have fought together in. We did not have time to visit them today but the ones we have seen on our travels so far, lay testament to the links including the British ones too are well looked after and respected.
There was a large tram shed which doubled as the museum/storage at the front half and workshop at the rear. Run by a group of obviously very dedicated people, keen to preserve the heritage and memories of Wellington Trams. They have 3 which are used on set days and for a reasonably small fee you can run up and down it as many times as you like in a given day. The standard of restoration in all three working trams is a tribute to their skills and craftwork as they are as shiny as anything and the wooden interiors positively gleam.
There is a little mock up in the museum which was attracting some attention. Big kids and little kids that is! Richard got to indulge his inner child once more and the Dad with his young son behind us found the courage to have his photo taken afterwards.
As a footnote to that, as has been the way throughout our travels, the New Zealanders are a very chatty group of people and we talked on the way back. The driver kindly insisted that everyone tooted the tram bell foot pedal on disembarking – much humour arose.
When we arrived at the coast earlier – on the down tram – we had brought our picnic lunch with us. Thankfully, we found a wooden table and benches and sat down to eat our usual fare – thinking of the money we were saving. It was very tasty and as it had been rather overcast when we left the top station, we decided to eschew hats – lesson learned, Richard is now quite brown but not dangerously so and I have a slight Rudolph coloured nose. Sun cream will be applied next time!!
Whilst we were there a family with two horses in a trailer arrived and we had a good time watching as one of the horses decided it was going to have a dip in the stream/river in front of us. Fortunately, the young girls hopped off as it lay down. The horses were clearly enjoying the water making plenty of splashes and having fun.
We returned to the motel after lunch and decided, as the clouds had cleared and the temp had shot up, we would make use of the swimming pool. It has easy access steps so was perfect for me. A cooling and refreshing half hour saw us feeling much more comfortable. The pool was spotlessly clean but personally for me a little too shallow to do much swimming – nonetheless thoroughly enjoyable.
A home cooked lamb chop dinner and using up the last of the mince pies saw us well fed and relaxed after a lovely day.
A couple of short comedy programmes and an early night followed as we would have to be up at 05.45 the following morning in order to catch the ferry.
And that's it for Part 5. Plenty more to come soon!
Cheers
Rich & Sandra