Road Trip
Well it only seems right to fill you in on the last escapade of New Zealand before i head back to the sunny southern hemisphere. So here we go. On the 18th of December we pack our bags and said goodbye to Ashburton and hello car relocation. Somehow we'd managed to swindle a free car to get us from Christchurch back to Auckland airport and home in time for tea. After picking up the car Craig had one last treat for us, taking us to Christchurch's largest markets. The Market, like most, was filled to the brim with wired and wonderful items all of which were absolutely no use to anyone, still we had good fun looking around and after an hour or two of wandering we said our goodbyes to Craig and Christchurch and begun the 1,700km journey back. The wheel for this trip were a rather flash 1.3, silver, Daihatsu Sirion complete with CD player, but no AUX lead or cassette player so we had to install our own sound system, a minor setback. The drive to Picton was quite a pleasant 4 hr where we accidentally stumbled across a seal on a photo stop and saw a seagull at the whale spotting beach. On the 19th we had the ferry crossing, this time on the supposedly better InterIslander, but i wasn't converted and personally I'm a Bluebridge man. After the uneventful crossing we made our way up to Napier stopping at Greytown for lunch. It seemed the logical having stayed a week in Greymouth to visit another grey town. But it was rather no discript stop so will skip to Napier. In the 1920s an earthquake destroyed most of the town and due to art deco been; cheap, safe and in fashion, most of the town was styled accordingly. So its a very grand place with all the Art Deco structures and sculptures, even our hoslte had a grand art deco scheme, complete with pool table ( as everyone knows a well know accompaniment to the art deco scheme). In the evening we treated ourselves to a fair well New Zealand meal at GMK, no idea what it stands for but the food was good and Angus the bull was tasty (red wine) so it was a most enjoyable send off to New Zealand; unless you were the lamb i ate. The following day we cruseise the town admierign the art deco some more and took a trip up bluff point to take in the spectacular view. After that it was off to gisboren for lunch, 'only a shot drive away', 'shouldnt be more than an hour' I was informed. well i was misinformed but 2 and a bit hours later we reached our lunch stop and it was so werth it. Gisbore in the Mairo capital of the world and so instantly the coolest place in New Zealand. After getting our fill of cool it was back to the road. We had hoped to take in the beaches on the bay of plenty and at Whakatane we got our icecream and headed over the flood defences to find the estry. It appeared we pick the only stop along the coast with out miles of golden sands and cystal clear waters. But never mind we invented ice cream cruising, the best form of transportation, driving along the sunny highway keeping cool by nibbling on an ice cream. Our night stop was our old friend the MacGreger. It was great to see them again and have a little reminder of our first wwoofing place and how much we'd done since then. So after spending as long as we could there playing in the paddock fixing motorbikes and other boyish behaviour we said our sad goodbyes again and headed for Taupo. Here we met up with another old friend and celebrated our last day in New Zealand in style with ice cream, lake swims and relaxing in the hot river with a few beers we into the night. On the 22nd we drove up to Auckland giving our American Friends a life to the hostel. Stopping for lunch at mount Eden, over looking the city that had borught us into New Zealand all those months ago and would now take us away from the land we had come to love. but we hadent left yet and after our lunch stop I drove our friends right to the hostle door, much to there delight and surprise and then after driving round the airport for a lengthy time stumbled across the car drop-off left the car and legged it. only jocking the car was fine so we got a lift to the airport and after the usual waiting around said goodbye to New Zealand and 48 hours later with another uneventful plane journey. well i did convince an Aussie that we all live in castles so it was better than most. we arrived back in a dark, wet, cold, grey, England. Oh how i missed New Zealand.
Well it only seems right to fill you in on the last escapade of New Zealand before i head back to the sunny southern hemisphere. So here we go. On the 18th of December we pack our bags and said goodbye to Ashburton and hello car relocation. Somehow we'd managed to swindle a free car to get us from Christchurch back to Auckland airport and home in time for tea. After picking up the car Craig had one last treat for us, taking us to Christchurch's largest markets. The Market, like most, was filled to the brim with wired and wonderful items all of which were absolutely no use to anyone, still we had good fun looking around and after an hour or two of wandering we said our goodbyes to Craig and Christchurch and begun the 1,700km journey back. The wheel for this trip were a rather flash 1.3, silver, Daihatsu Sirion complete with CD player, but no AUX lead or cassette player so we had to install our own sound system, a minor setback. The drive to Picton was quite a pleasant 4 hr where we accidentally stumbled across a seal on a photo stop and saw a seagull at the whale spotting beach. On the 19th we had the ferry crossing, this time on the supposedly better InterIslander, but i wasn't converted and personally I'm a Bluebridge man. After the uneventful crossing we made our way up to Napier stopping at Greytown for lunch. It seemed the logical having stayed a week in Greymouth to visit another grey town. But it was rather no discript stop so will skip to Napier. In the 1920s an earthquake destroyed most of the town and due to art deco been; cheap, safe and in fashion, most of the town was styled accordingly. So its a very grand place with all the Art Deco structures and sculptures, even our hoslte had a grand art deco scheme, complete with pool table ( as everyone knows a well know accompaniment to the art deco scheme). In the evening we treated ourselves to a fair well New Zealand meal at GMK, no idea what it stands for but the food was good and Angus the bull was tasty (red wine) so it was a most enjoyable send off to New Zealand; unless you were the lamb i ate. The following day we cruseise the town admierign the art deco some more and took a trip up bluff point to take in the spectacular view. After that it was off to gisboren for lunch, 'only a shot drive away', 'shouldnt be more than an hour' I was informed. well i was misinformed but 2 and a bit hours later we reached our lunch stop and it was so werth it. Gisbore in the Mairo capital of the world and so instantly the coolest place in New Zealand. After getting our fill of cool it was back to the road. We had hoped to take in the beaches on the bay of plenty and at Whakatane we got our icecream and headed over the flood defences to find the estry. It appeared we pick the only stop along the coast with out miles of golden sands and cystal clear waters. But never mind we invented ice cream cruising, the best form of transportation, driving along the sunny highway keeping cool by nibbling on an ice cream. Our night stop was our old friend the MacGreger. It was great to see them again and have a little reminder of our first wwoofing place and how much we'd done since then. So after spending as long as we could there playing in the paddock fixing motorbikes and other boyish behaviour we said our sad goodbyes again and headed for Taupo. Here we met up with another old friend and celebrated our last day in New Zealand in style with ice cream, lake swims and relaxing in the hot river with a few beers we into the night. On the 22nd we drove up to Auckland giving our American Friends a life to the hostel. Stopping for lunch at mount Eden, over looking the city that had borught us into New Zealand all those months ago and would now take us away from the land we had come to love. but we hadent left yet and after our lunch stop I drove our friends right to the hostle door, much to there delight and surprise and then after driving round the airport for a lengthy time stumbled across the car drop-off left the car and legged it. only jocking the car was fine so we got a lift to the airport and after the usual waiting around said goodbye to New Zealand and 48 hours later with another uneventful plane journey. well i did convince an Aussie that we all live in castles so it was better than most. we arrived back in a dark, wet, cold, grey, England. Oh how i missed New Zealand. 
No comments:
Post a Comment