Hi,
We have had a wonderful long weekend exploring the lower half of the North Island with our friends, Kathleen and Duncan. Our friends are over from Melbourne (where I used to work with Kathleen) for two weeks. They spent the first week in Otago exploring Wanaka, Queenstown and Dunedin, before turning up at our place earlier in the week.
It all started for me and Toby on Thursday morning. We had the Corolla packed and left one bag (our clothes) with Mike to bring up later in the wee green car. Mike had an extra day of work to get through before joining us in Napier at the Kennedy Top Ten Motor Camp. Toby, Kathleen, Duncan and I sped up State Highway 2 nice and early. My enthusiastic driving over the Rimutaka Hill made Toby and Kathleen slightly ill and we had to stop for refreshments in Greytown. Lucky they have that beautiful French bakery there, isn't it? What a hardship. After about 30 minutes, Kathleen felt well enough to continue and we didn't stop until we got to the i (information centre) in Napier where we dumped out Kathleen and Duncan to get to their 1.45pm Art Deco walking tour.
Meanwhile Toby and I went to the Top Ten Motor Camp and pitched the tent. Stupid dry Napier dirt! It was hard pegging the pegs in without a mallet into rock-hard ground. The land around Wellington doesn't have that problem. Toby helped me for about 1 minute before the lure of the jumping pillow pulled him out of my grasp. I'd told him they had a swimming pool as well when we came in and that he had to wait for me and he'd have to swim in his jocks (Mike has all the clothes remember). As I neared completing the tent pitching exercise I could hear Toby shouting "Mum!". So I shouted back "Come here", not being in a position to leave at that point. Anyhow, he never turned up.
So I finished the last peg that meant the tent wouldn't blow away and laid down my sandal (the only way to push pegs into the ground) and wandered off to find Toby. I found him in the swimming pool, in his jocks (and socks!). He was told off in no uncertain terms, and hauled out of the pool quick-smart. I couldn't believe he had gone into the pool without me there. I made him walk to the tentsite where I told him off and told him I expect him never to go swimming without our knowledge again. I got everything ready and then followed him back to the pool where he played for a little longer in the cold water. He spent a lot of time drying off as he had no towel (in the bag with the clothes) and it was cold water in the pool.
We went to collect Kathleen and Duncan from their tour and ate dinner in town - steaks at the Lone Star. Then we went back and Toby and I went to bed (we had the bedding with us) and we waited for Mike to arrive.
Mike left work right on time at 5pm and hurtled to Napier. Traffic was good, it was free-flowing from Petone onwards and he even had a clear run over the Rimutakas - clear road on the way up and as part of a phalanx of Golf GTi's on the way down. He did the whole trip non-stop. Well, apart from one pit-stop that was going to involve a pie munched down as he put petrol in the car. It turned into something slightly more leisurely, since he had to refuel in Dannevirke which has all the best restaurants - including Subway which I never let him eat because even the smell makes me slightly ill. Bleugh. Each to their own. So he had a leisurely foot-long meatball sandwich sitting out on a kerbside table watching the Dannevirke night-life go by.
The second stop for Mike was at 9:45 when he turned up at the campground. He rang as he drove in the gate and I talked him in - I knew he was close when headlights loomed through the tent. He parked right by the tent, took the two steps through the entrance and straight to bed. We all slept well.
Next morning we cooked up breakfast in Kathleen and Duncan's room and Toby got a television fix (no Cartoon Network though). He also got a swim in and a bounce on the jumping pillow. Then we struck the tent and packed up. Kathleen, Toby and I went to the Amazing Maze in Maize out near Hastings. We got given a walkie talkie in case we got hopelessly lost in the maize. The maze was fantastic and we had a ball. After wandering around and not getting too lost we made it out. I felt just like I was in that episode of Ben 10 where they run around a corn field. I loved it. Toby got freaked by spooky pictures of two old people (in reception) that had a hologram that turned their faces into ghosts when you changed angles. The maize field got him spooked a few times. We were the only punters there. Made it even better I reckon! They have an evening Haunted maze for 16 years and over and Toby was keen. But if daylight scares him because of spooky pictures, then he's a long way from being able to do the spooky maze. The owner, Les, says she has 25 actors out there on those evenings with blood splatterings and all sorts!
Mike and Duncan went to explore wineries in the other car, and had a great time by all accounts - even though Mike was driving (so couldn't taste much) and Duncan was flying home (so couldn't buy much). Between the two of them they got through it with flying colours. They went to Mission and Church Road - the funny thing with these wineries being that they are basically in the middle of a Napier suburb. When they were built in the late 19th century they were in the countryside - but Napier has grown to meet them. Mission in particular is absolutely beautiful, since it was a priory and seminary right up until 1990. Its grounds and buildings are gorgeous and worth seeing in their own right.
Anyhow, we all met up again for lunch in Napier by the waterfront, before Duncan headed off to Napier airport - he was heading to Auckland early to catch up with a friend there - and the rest of us drove to Turangi (via Taupo) for the evening. We bought a walkie talkie for car to car comms as we thought it'd be good for our Easter road trip too. It was fun. Toby especially liked it. Duncan was deposited at Napier airport and we were off to Taupo. It was a lot faster than I anticipated getting there. 1.5 hours. Add another 30 minutes to get to Turangi and it was a good drive. We found our backpackers at Turangi easily enough, in spite of its bizarre name - or names! - The A Plus Lodge, aka Samurai Hostel, aka Iwikehe Backpackers, aka Tongariro Hostel. It was pretty basic. We had a huge room and they built a room for Kathleen upon arrival. That might be a slight exaggeration. They had made a big room into two small rooms and Kathleen got one of them. The light switch was in the other room, so they had removed the bulb and added a bedside lamp! And no facia on the door so there was a big gap all around the door frame that you could see straight in through. Kathleen got the man to add strips of wood. Even then her room didn't lock - if you pushed it it just opened. Very weird. But comfortable enough - especially at the price, which for our room was the same as our tent site the night before!
Next morning we got up to get some breakfast and provisions and Mike and Toby dropped me at Kathleen off at the Tongariro Crossing Mangapopo road end. The weather was nice everywhere in the whole country - except the top of Mt Tongariro. We made good time and walked up into cloud and wind. I pulled on my thermal leggings, jersey and parka and we ate lunch before heading up higher. Kathleen added woolly hat and gloves to her ensemble and we walked up into the cloud. Her glasses got covered in rain and she took them off. Her visibility didn't change much as the clouds were pretty thick. I told her about the wonderful views she couldn't see. As we walked down the scree I fell, leaning back against the wind on one step down and having the gust suddenly stop plunged me to my bottom! My left hand copped a deep graze from volcanic shards (I'm making this dramatic as possible and I didn't notice the blood on my pinky until I got down the scree) as I stopped my fall. I saw the first lake loom out of the mist and pointed it out to Kathleen. We popped behind a rock to tip out the rocks from my boots and cover my cut with a plaster. Kathleen bobbed up and said it was clearing and there were loads of people there. I bobbed up and saw the lake clearly and about 20 or 30 people having their lunch on the shore of the lake. They had been hiding in the mist and invisible to us. I laced my boots back up and we took off. The wind had whipped up the volcanic dust and ash and it adhered to the sunscreen on my face. Along with the hat hair, the strap holding my sun hat to my head and my stripey thermals poking out from my shorts, I think I looked a fine sight. I had ash in my ears and up my nose. Each bite of food ground away years of enamel on my teeth! Blowing my nose was like plastic surgery.
The rest of the walk was mostly out of the cloud and we had a good view of the lakes as we walked the interminable downhill slog to the other road end. It was a wonderful surprise to see Mike and Toby walking up to meet us from their end. Kathleen was walking ahead and I heard her say "Hello" and there was Mike and Toby. Mike had a backpack full of yummy sustaining food and cold drinks for us. Thank you Mike. I was feeling pretty good unlike last year where I got blisters an hour into the walk and spent the next 6 hours hobbling and favouring my blistered foot. The ungainly walk made my body ache way more than this year. I'm on for next summer too - with Toby this time. Any takers? Oh - and I'm only going in lovely conditions so I get to enjoy the wonderful scenery. No more clouds for me.
We drove straight to the Tokaanu hot pools and got two private pools and we relaxed in the hot, hot water. Great treatment for muscles after a long walk. back to Turangi for a posh dinner at Four Fish restaurant before sinking into a blissful sleep.
Kathleen was bussing to Auckland at 1:25pm on Sunday, so Sunday morning consisted of finding things to do that didn't take us too far from Turangi (which we'd pretty well sucked the marrow of by now). We thought a tour of the power station would be good but they only run them with prior arrangement. So we decided on a whim to drive Kathleen around the central plateau. We stopped in at many things we always whiz past, looking at the old Pa site on Lake Rotoaire (smothered in black swans, making Kathleen homesick for Western Australia where the state symbol is a black swan), the train viaduct near Ohakune and then hurtling to get back to Turangi on time. Got there with oodles of time, and Kathleen's bus was 30 minutes late anyway!
Once we'd seen Kathleen off, it was time to head home. This was an unusual trip because as we went, we shed people and luggage - now there was just me and Toby in the Corolla, and Mike in convoy in the MX-5. So off we went, radioing back and forth on the walkie-talkies. Before we knew it we were pulling into Wellington. We both filled up in Taihape, so Mike got us to both fill up again in Wellington to see how the two cars compared. It was amazingly close - the Corolla used 15.38 litres and the MX-5 used 15.84 litres! Less than one pint difference in 2 and a bit hours driving. I wasn't expecting the two cars to be that close. It's about 230km from Taihape to Wellington, giving a mileage of about 6.7 L/100km - so that means that the two cars together used about the same petrol as the Magna by itself would have used on the same road. So we didn't need to feel *too* guilty about taking two cars between three people!
We got home by 6pm and started the dinner and the unpacking and the airing and the washing and the preparation for Monday morning. Vivienne had looked after Merlot well, and Merlot has almost forgiven us our absence. Maybe.
Kathleen and Duncan are reunited in Auckland now, and fly back home today. Toby really enjoyed their company over the weekend. It was great to see them again.
We got back to find that my mother has been sick, sick, sick. She's full of infection and on antibiotics. I must go around with fresh fruit and veges to boost her immune system. I'm hoping the drugs kick in soon and she's back to fighting fit soon. I miss her. Hopefully I can go see her soon.
Monday is Kea night and a big night planned tonight. Woo hoo! Mike has a double booking so he'll ride to Keas on my bike and drop me and Toby off and head to the winter trip planning night for tramping club.
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