Thursday 31st January

We woke to brilliant sunshine and cloudless skies and at 10.00am (now our routine start to a day of travelling) set off on our journey to Christchurch.

The hills all around Blenheim are brown, we don’t know whether this is normal or because of the drought they’re experiencing at the moment, but they are called the Wither Hills so perhaps that gives a clue. These hills kept us company for quite a way south, then changed to become more mountainous with proper peaks and fir trees. The individual hills have intriguing names such as Jamie’s Knob and to even up the sexes, Jeannie’s Knob (!!), Mount Horrible and Mount Misery, and the Wart. Again the roads are very twisty and climb and fall with monotonous regularity….but it’s anything but monotonous! You run out of superlatives in this glorious country – every corner brings a new sight; a valley cut into the hills, a village (or even a single dwelling) nestled high on the hills with only a dirt track for access; a stream bed (mostly dry now) littered with boulders; sheep clinging to steep slopes – then you round another bend and you’re in a flat plain with hills in the distance. We took some lovely photos of the cloud topped Seaward Kaikoura Range mountains as we reached Clarence

(still no snow on the tops) then a little further on, at Paparoa Point we had a most delightful encounter with seals! There were dozens of them swimming in the rough waves and basking on the rocks, no more than about 20ft from the road. They were totally oblivious to all the humans who were photographing them. The shoreline is very rocky with lots of inlets along this stretch of road so although mainly fairly level, the road twists and turns with each corner unveiling another VIEW!

The railway line runs right along the side of the road, often where the pavement would be with no barrier between the two. The line crosses the road at several points and disappears into tunnels in the hills when there isn’t enough room for both road and rail between mountain and sea. And this time we actually saw a train on the move! Kaikoura, famous for its whale, dolphin and albatross watching, is a starting point for walking and touring in the region so has loads of backpacker accommodation and not much else, so we were quite pleased we hadn’t booked to stay there. At this point, we phoned ahead and booked our accommodation in Christchurch so as not to be caught out like in New Plymouth. We’ve found that even if a place is marked on the map in large letters, it doesn’t necessarily mean that there is anything there except a solitary house, so you can’t rely on even finding a loo stop!

After Kaikoura, the road goes inland and more mountains appear with names like Solomon’s Throne, Mount Beautiful and Ned’s Farewell but it’s difficult to pick them out individually as there’s so many. We stopped at Cheviot for coffee and stickies (and the loo, of course). Signs everywhere warned that as the authorities had found bacterial organisms in the water supply, all water used for washing vegetables and fruit, and for cleaning teeth and dishes should be boiled for at least a minute before using!

From about Amberley, you start to enter Christchurch’s suburbs with a noticeable change in the scenery. Many more houses on flat land and the roads become much wider – 2 wide lanes with a shoulder AND a parking lane is not uncommon. The directions for our Motel, the Adelphi, were straightforward, so despite it being rush hour, we arrived here about 5.00pm. This is the largest suite we have had. Two bedrooms, huge lounge/diner, nice size kitchen and a proper bathroom with separate loo and shower, all for NZ$125 per night (at roughly NZ$2.5 = £1 you can work it out). Breakfast is not included in most motel prices but we cater for ourselves anyway. The owners here are very pleasant and helpful as are most of the motel owners. There are varied services available at each motel but most have a laundry (differing prices from free wash, small cost for drying to $3 for a wash and $5 for a dry). This place is close to the centre of town and a lot of the visitor attractions.

We walked into town yesterday evening, found the RSA club, and had a splendid meal for half the cost of anywhere else. We then had a meander through the centre, saw the restaurant tram in front of the cathedral and got our bearings for when we “do” Christchurch proper on Saturday. We’re here for 4 nights as we’re using it as a base for visiting Akaroa tomorrow and also going on the Trans Alpine train (a full day) on Sunday. It’s very strange after only staying at most places for 1 night.

Unfortunately, although wireless internet is here, there is a fault on it and Tom cannot get out to the net so he’s going to take the laptop with us tomorrow and see if he can log on elsewhere. If you get this post, he obviously has!!

We’re having an early night, and no alarm tomorrow, so we’ll say bye for now.

Wednesday 30th January

This morning as we were getting ready to leave the lodging, the front door was left open for a couple of minutes (!!) and our host threw a wobbly because at some time in the past, someone had walked in and stolen a microwave. So we left under a cloud and won’t be welcome back, not that we would anyway!

Having been all but thrown out, we drove sedately to the Interislander Ferry without any more mishaps. The ferry we were on, the Kaitake, is the biggest in their fleet and it certainly is huge. I don’t know what the capacity of cross-channel ferries is but this one holds 1650 passengers and lots of cars and lorries (sorry, that piece of information escapes me for the moment). After being warned that the crossing of the Cook Strait can be one of the roughest known to man (and woman), we had the calmest crossing either of us have EVER experienced on any ferry. Mind you, Tom had bought some anti sea-sickness wristbands so the same principle as the brolly purchase in Waitangi must have been at work.

It was overcast but with bursts of sunshine as we came up the narrow sounds into Picton harbour. We then drove to Blenheim and decided that was far enough for the day. It was probably a good choice as, having booked into a motel at 1.00pm, it was the last room available and the other motels in the area were also full when we came back from exploring the town about 2 hours later. So I think our future plan is to stop early or phone ahead when we know how far we’re going to get.

Blenheim is a lovely little town with a good range of shops and a magnificent new combined Clubs building. Basically all the various clubs in town pooled their resources to finance a new building on the riverbank. It would put many a top class Conference centre, bar and restaurant to shame. Tom flashed his Retired Serviceman’s card (but only that, thank goodness) and we had a light lunch in the enormous Bistro Bar overlooking the river. We got chatting to a couple of local ladies who told me where to go for patchwork etc supplies but as we found that it was further away than we thought, we went back for the car. Not only was there a well stocked needlework shop, but next door was a cancer charity shop, so we helped the cause and bought some books and a couple of warmer tops, as the evenings are definitely chillier than we’d been led to believe. So we’re now equipped for just about anything the weather can throw at us - apart from rain – and we’re relying on the magic brolly to keep that away!!

The ladies who had told us where the shop was were so funny – they’re avid Coronation Street watchers and wanted to know what was happening as NZ tv is months behind UK. As we don’t watch Corrie, I was unable to enlighten them! Everyone here is just so friendly – as we were walking into town yesterday, Tom stopped to take a photo of the railway line which runs through the middle of a roundabout on the main road (!!). A lady just started chatting to us, telling us how when she first arrived here she tried to warn her husband about it. He obviously didn’t understand because when he did encounter it he’d said “what the f*** is going on here?” (They’re very fond of the f word here! But for some reason it doesn’t sound nearly so offensive as in UK). Going back to the roundabout, Tom says that the road rules dictate that, as in UK, you give way to the right for everything except trains….you give way to them whichever direction they’re coming from!! Some of the rail crossings have to be seen to be believed.

We got back to the motel at about 5.00pm and I went for a swim while Tom (….you’ve guessed it….) fiddled with his gadgets. He says that if he doesn’t do it regularly, they stop working! After he’d done whatever, we walked back into town to the RSA club and had a very pleasant meal. It was quiet in there, the staff say that it only really gets busy on Friday and Saturday evenings when there’s usually some entertainment on. The town itself was almost empty apart from a handful of youngsters standing around outside one of the pubs, in fact, the only pub we saw in the town centre – so unlike anything we’re used to in Bedford where every second building seems to be some sort of drinking place.

One of the things we noticed on all the shops was a warning “R U A Waga?”. They have a system for reporting kids who “wag” (play truant from) school and refusing to serve anyone of school age during school hours. Just think, if they tried to do that in UK the Ooman rights brigade would be on them in a flash.


Then it was home to bed ready for another day – tomorrow it’s Kaikoura then on to Christchurch.

Tuesday 29th January

After a late(ish) breakfast, we set off for Te Papa museum. It almost seemed a shame to be going indoors as the weather was very bright and sunny, but this was going to be our last day in Wellington and we’d read so much about the museum we just had to visit. It certainly is an imposing modern building and beautifully laid out but we were slightly disappointed by the content. There’s a lot of space and, by comparison, few exhibits. The earthquake experience was not what we’d expected or even hoped, just a jiggling around with nothing flying off the shelves or falling over (well, what do you think happens in a 6.5 Richter scale quake?). We latched on to one of the tour guides for a short time – we hadn’t paid for the guided tour!! – and he was very interesting and funny in his descriptive lesson on the cause and effect of earthquakes.

Some of the displays were being renovated and others had changed location so I’m sure we missed some out but the information layout in some areas is not very clear. In most of the displays you can easily start at the wrong end and work backwards and, as we’re now in our dotage, it can be very confusing! However, we found enough to interest us for 3 and a half hours, including having a coffee and a not very nice cookie. Then it was back out into the sunshine and another bit of exploring of the city before heading back to our quaint lodgings.

We had arranged to visit Nick and his family in Petone, a 20 minute drive from the city so drove over there a little early and had a wander round their very pleasant shopping area, before getting to their house just before 7.00pm. We were in time to take a few photos of Jacob (22 months) and Violet (4 months) with Nick and Louisa before the children went to bed. Jacob was very shy but who wouldn’t be faced with 2 total strangers just before bedtime? (Especially Tom!!) It was a lovely evening. We worked out that the last time we saw Nick was about 24 years ago when he was still at school!

While we were looking round the Pak’nSave supermarket in Petone, we saw some bottles of wine which we just had to buy. They are bottled in NZ by Purr Productions and a contribution from the sale goes to the SPCA for use in animal welfare. If you read this before Tom uploads the piccies, you’ll just have to wait to see why we bought them. Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to bring any home so you’ll just have to rely on us to tell us what they taste like!!!
As we had to be up early on Wednesday morning for the ferry, we weren’t late back and packed up as much as we could before falling into bed.

Monday 28th January

We left Palmerston North at 10.00am having had a bit of a lie-in. We had managed to get through to Andy before leaving but there seems to be a problem with his internet phone so it took several goes to say anything much.. In the end he phoned via landline to our internet no. and told us their news so it was good to catch up.

We stopped off en route at Otaki for coffee and sticky and, after a small hiccup (our street map had an out of date one way system) safely arrived at our latest lodging in Wellington at 1 o'clock. We did our, by now, usual unloading routine and after a cup of tea with John our host, we set off to explore Wellington. It was so good to walk about after so many days cooped up in the car. We walked from Brougham St for about 2km then went up in the cable car to the Botanical Gardens for some amazing views of the city. We did find that the signposting at the top left something to be desired but we just kept going downhill and eventually found all the floral displays and very nice they are too.

We walked all the way round the bottom of the hill looking for the cafe and found it next to the Lady Norwood Rose Gardens where everything was in full bloom - so we got lots of piccies. We walked back to the city through the old cemetery which is now 2 old cemeteries with the motorway running through the middle! They thought they'd have to move about 2000 bodies during the works but ended up having to transplant 3700!! I'm sure there must have been many objections.

By this time we were both feeling footsore but continued to walk "home" arriving at 6.00pm then had a lie down to recover. We've had a short drive to go for dinner this evening as neither of us could face the walk back here up the hill and got back about 9.00pm.

Our accommodation here is quaint to say the least. The owner is an avid collector of Capo di Monte figurines and antique furniture, so the house, which is enormous is full of amazing pieces. It's all very higgledy-piggledy, but is clean, cheap (NZ$80 for 2 including breakfast) and handy for exploring the city. We're here for 2 nights - the longest we've stayed anywhere except with Al and Jenness - and will be seeing Nick Edwards and his family tomorrow evening. We can't remember the last time we saw him, suffice to say it's been more years than we can count on both hands and we've never met Louisa, so it should be a very chatty evening.

Tom says that until we get the next wireless access, he can't upload any more pics. The radio which we're listening to as I type, is free-standing, a yard high, in a wooden cabinet circa ???. The PC I'm using is similar technology - it has a cd reader and a three and a quarter inch drive, no usb connections and is running Windows 98. However, it is free and we've been able to update the blog and retrieve our e-mails, so we can't really complain.

It's now 10.20pm and we're off to bed ready for another day in Wellington tomorrow. So it's goodnight from me and goodnight from him - to quote a phrase.

Sunday 27th January

Our night in the cell was not too bad and we both slept well - not surprising for Tom after the twists and turns of yesterday. Breakfast was pretty standard continental style and we set off from the lodge at 10.00am. The clouds covered Mt Taraniki (Egmont) completely so we weren't able to get any photos and it was quite cool although bright.

After his marathon drive, we decided that today's travel would be less arduous and aimed for Palmerston North about 230kms away. Thanks goodness the roads were straighter and as it was Sunday, traffic was light. But as it was Sunday, nearly all the shops were closed everywhere we pased through. However, at Patea, we stopped to photograph a replica of a war canoe mounted on a high plinth,

and found a Museum of local history - what a place! We've never seen so much stuff cluttered about but it was very interesting and some of the exhibits brought back memories of our youth. It was a real mixture of household, transport, farming and the history of Maori versus English in the 1800's. We then found a tatty little cafe where we had a snack and coffee and had a long chat with the lad who was running it. He'd visited UK about 5 years ago and was interested in our travels, giving us some pointers for the South Island.

Our travels continued on through Wanganui before we stopped in Bulls at a craft shop - some wonderful quirky items in wood and pottery, and a great advert, but resisted the temptation to buy. We phoned ahead to Palmerston North to a motel from the AA accommodation book and succeeded at the first attempt!....rather better luck than yesterday! We arrived here at the AAbode motel at just after 3.00pm. We would definitely reccommend this one - it's very new, spacious and the propietor is so helpful and friendly and onlyNZ$115 per night.

We're getting quite adept at unloading the car and getting out only what we need for the night but as there's a free laundry facility here, I stuck a bagful of washing in the machine while we went for a wander into the town, about one and a half km away. We found a good cafe/bar for a drink then returned here for a chicken salad - fine healthy eating for a change.

Tom has uploaded some photos onto the blog, so you can go back over the entries for previous days and have a look. We paid NZ$7.50 for unlimited internet access till 10.00am tomorrow and it has taken him about 2 hours to sort out the photos and upload them. He's now having a rest while I do this. We've phoned ahead to the B&B in Wellington we'd booked for Tues evening before sailing to S Island and we can stay there tomorrow as well. I was going to ring Nick Edwards tonight but have left it too late so will give him a ring tomorrow. (Some of you will remember Jane and Peter Edwards from RAF days - their son, Nick now lives and works in Wellington and we'll try to get to see him and meet his wife Louisa and their children Jacob and Violet).

Wellington is only about 130kms from here so we can have a leisurely morning and get to the B&B early afternoon. That will give us a day and a half to explore the city and we'll have another day and a half when we return from S Island.

We hope you're all still enjoying following our travels. It' s a great way to remind us of what we've done every day . I can't believe that we've only been in NZ 12 days - we've packed so much in already and have another 4 and a half weeks.

The internet phones we bought have been great although we still haven't managed to talk to Andy yet, but left one message for him. We've spoken 3 times to Amy and the line is very clear. Please feel free to put your comments on the blog - it's a little contact with everyone. Anyway, Tom is desperate to put on todays photos so bye for now.

Saturday 26th January

A late start today, as we were both tired from the travelling yesterday (350Km) and we were looking forward to a shorter time in the car.

We had an uneventful drive down to Auckland, where our lane left the motorway and deposited us unceremoniously in downtown Auckland. Tom’s navigating skills came into their own, cos when he asked me for directions, I threw my toys out of the cot!! His suggestion of “well a map of the bl***y place would be a good start”, was not too well received, so we stopped while he found out where we were, and how to get back to the motorway. By the way, if you do come to NZ, don’t try to travel North from Auckland on a Saturday, especially a public holiday weekend. The traffic going North was horrendous, with miles of crawling vehicles. Fortunately, we were going South, so had a clear run.

We had decided to try for Waitomo Caves, South of Hamilton, visit the caves, then find somewhere to stay, just South of there. We made it to the caves by 1.45pm, and joined a tour at 2.30pm to the Glow-worm Caves. This was a most enjoyable experience, even though I don’t like caves. I was fine, apart from when they put the lights out for the first time, and we were left for a couple of minutes in pitch black. It was so quick that by the time I thought I might panic, the light was on again.

We then went down another level to the river that runs through the cave system, and boarded a boat.

As we left the jetty, we went into the dark, but this time I wasn’t at all bothered cos there were millions of glow-worms on the roof, and it was spectacular. We came out and had our photo taken just before leaving the boat, walked up to the shop, and were able to buy a copy of the photo that had just been taken, together with a CD ROM of the caves. You can't take photos inside the cave, so the two above are examples from the CD ROM.

The Museum of the Caves was included in the entry price, so we had the tour, and an audio-visual presentation on the sex-life of the glow-worm. Must say, we didn’t fancy the technique. You hatch from a pupa, mate once, don’t eat, and die 4 days later.

After a coffee at the Long Black Café (apparently famous), we set off at about 4.45 to find accommodation for the night. We headed for Mokau on the West coast, up and down and round and round some of the most winding and undulating roads we have ever been on. If you plan to drive this road, make sure no-one is prone to car-sickness.

There was no accommodation, and hardly any houses until we got to Mokau, and the only motel there was full. Never mind, we’d drive a little further along the coast. There was bound to be one soon. And we drove, and we drove, and running short of fuel, we diverted into Waitara town centre, where the only hotel looked dreadful, and at this stage we still had hope. At the fuel station, the lady suggested we drive on to New Plymouth. There was plenty of accommodation there. Fortunately, she was correct. Unfortunately, they were all full.

So we stopped, got out the AA accommodation guide, and started phoning. After a while we started looking for the new star in the East, as there was clearly no room at any Inn. We worked our way through the guide, getting farther and farther from New Plymouth, and eventually found a vacancy at the Forrestal Lodge in Inglewood. By the time we got here at 9pm, having stopped off for a takeaway chicken and chips, our short day had turned into 420Km. It’s a good job Tom doesn’t mind driving.

The lodge is an old convent, so we’re in cell 5 for the night. And it does rather feel like we’re doing penance. The room has two single beds, and a bunk, and a sink. At the end of the corridor is the loo, with the shower next door. These ablutions serve the entire lodge. Nuns must have had very strong bladders. However, the price of NZ$90 for the night does include two breakfasts, and they very kindly let us use their wireless internet for free, so Tom can post yesterday and today at one go.

It’s now 11pm and our “short” day has gone on quite long enough, so goodnight all.

Friday 25th January

There is justice after all. Tom snored all night forcing me to go and lie on the sofa. Because of his sins, a mozzie came and ate him with a vengeance. YESSSSSSS.

Although we had bought an internet access code, we couldn’t get connected, so were unable to call Amy or Andy in the morning, so we set off at about 9.15, for the return to Waitangi. The weather on the way was disgusting – low cloud, rain and wind, but we got to Paihia at about 11.30. We had coffee and pie at “Nine”, a very nice coffee bar, bought anthisan for Tom’s bites, and a plug in Mozzie killer.

Because it was still raining, we went to Woolworths, and bought a brolly. That was incredibly effective, cos it promptly stopped raining.

We then drove the mile or so to Waitangi, and they let us in the second time, without paying. Amazing what a pathetic look can achieve. We did the Waitangi tourist bit just like the last time, taking even more video and photos, checking as we went that they had been saved. As a bonus, there was a troupe of Maori actors and actresses, who had been performing a live show in the centre, and we were able to video some of their routine as they gave a short impromptu display outside. One of them posed for me to take a photo, much to the amusement of his mates.
We then returned to the Outrigger Motel, where we had spent Wednesday night, as we had been able to use the internet, and still had credit. We successfully logged on, checked e-mails and were able to upload the Thursday blog. We still have plenty of air-time left, but need to find a hotspot for Zenbu Wifi to use it.

By now the weather was beautiful, obviously thanks to the brolly, so we headed back South. We stopped in Kawakawa to take some more pics of the toilet, and to use it, and reached Whangerai, still in sunshine, so visited the falls that we had by-passed on the way up. It was definitely worth the short detour, and much more impressive than Haruru.As a bonus, we found a petrol station that was 4 cents a litre cheaper than previous ones. (NZ$1.68 per litre or about 68p. Diesel is even cheaper at NZ$1.27 per litre, 52p)

Since we had made good time, we phoned ahead to the Walton Park motel at Warkworth, and were able to get a room for the night, so that is where we ended up. I went swimming again, and Tom played with his gadgets. We went back to the RSA club where the restaurant was open, and had a very good meal of chicken breast with lemon and garlic, and a help yourself veg and salad buffet, 2 deserts and 4 beers. Total cost NZ$46, or £18.40.
Then off to bed. There is no internet access at the motel, so we’ll post this the next chance we get.

Thurs 24th January

We have good news and bad news (well, oh B****r news) – we’ll come to the bad news later just to keep you all on tenterhooks!

We managed to get some of Tom’s tons of gadgetry working and we spoke to Amy via the Internet phone for the first time. It worked really well although we did lose reception a couple of times. It was lovely to speak rather than just e-mail. We also tried to phone Andy but neither he nor Ninx was there so we’ll have to try again later. If you’re reading this Andy, please e-mail us so we have your address.

After breakfast, we drove to the Haruru falls just outside Paihia

– very pretty but not spectacular, then on to Kaikohe – rather a deprived area but we found a nice café for coffee and cake (NZ$12.40 = £5 total for both. We went shopping for shorts for both of us, having not packed sufficient and (thanks for the tip Jane) we found The Warehouse, a very cheap and cheerful sells everything store (a bit like Matalan and Wilkinsons combined)) and for the magnificent total of NZ$45, Tom had 1 pr, I had 2prs and a skirt and a couple of other domestic bits!!

Then it was on to Hokianga harbour for a picnic lunch with superb views and onwards south to Waipoua Forest to admire the largest (by volume) kauri tree in NZ. It’s believed to be over 2000 years old and it’s enormous. You can get some idea of the size by looking at the people in the background at the base of the tree.The forests here have been logged to within an inch of extinction, as have many other forests in other parts of the world. There are records of even older and larger kauri being felled by the timber industry but, thankfully, the important ones are all now protected and a programme of regeneration is currently being attempted. Several generations will be required to follow this through as even 500yr old trees are referred to as “young”.

Having seen Tane Mahuta (Lord of the Forest) in the flesh, so to speak, we then wended a very windy way through the forest (Amy, you’d have died) and ended up at the Kauri Musem in Matakohe. It has to be one of the most impressive collections of virtually anything to do with the logging and timber industry. Old photographs beautifully presented with comments, sometimes quite humorous; immense slabs (the biggest 22.5m long) of kauri tree – raw and polished – and all manner of furniture and artefacts made from the wood. Hugh would be in his element!

Only a couple of hundred metres from the Museum, we found accommodation for the night, would you believe it, in a cabin on a CARAVAN PARK! Tom’s suffering déjà vu! It’s got better views than Roydon……. It also has a laundrette so as I write this the machine’s full of Davison smalls (and larges).

Now for the bad news. We sat down to watch the last 2 days film that Tom has painstakingly took……..and ALL the footage he shot at Waitangi has disappeared! He has no idea what has happened but since the visit there was one of the high spots, if not the most important, of our trip, we have to change our plans and go back tomorrow. So much for the leisurely stop and linger when we find somewhere nice – tomorrow will be foot down and head back north. Fortunately, because we’ve come round in a big loop today, it’s only about 2.5hrs drive but then the same south to start where we are now. Still, we do have a couple of flexi days built in to the system so it shouldn’t put too much of a hole in our plans.
This evening we went out to find somewhere to eat and the village of Matahoke where we are is almost non-existent. We ended up on an unmade road leading nowhere so had to turn around and make our way back. We did find one café only to be told at 7.45 they’d stopped cooking! She was a very nice lady and told us where to go!?! And that was to the next village, Paparoa, where we found the Sahara restaurant which won the best restaurant in the whole N Island last year. Despite that accolade, the food was not expensive but was lovely and had the most interesting decor we have seen in a restaurant for a long time.

Now we’re off to bed ready to face backtracking tomorrow.

23 Jan - Warkworth to Paihia

We left Warkworth at 9.30 and stopped off just north of Wellsford for coffee and a sandwich. The café we found was by a single track railway line which only takes freight. The lights were flashing when we arrived and we waited for ages with no sign of a train……then they just stopped and we could cross! Don’t know if it was a phantom train or if we just fell asleep waiting so long!!










The café had an amazing display of local crafts including some patchwork which was really beautiful (Tom took some photos). We met some people who were also on holiday and one of them was from Cambridge – small world yet again.

Further north after the main highway splits, the traffic was very light and the roads are much more winding and hilly but the weather started to deteriorate and when we reached Whangarei, it poured. We had intended to walk to the Falls there but decided against that and had haircuts instead! - an interesting alternative!

Then we continued north towards Paihia, stopping at Kawakawa where Tom said there was an interesting toilet! We drove down the high street and couldn’t find it so we parked at the railway station where there was a café on the platform. While we were having a coffee we were approached by a uniformed gentleman who wanted to know if we would like to take a trip on the train. It turned out that it was a private railway and they were running short trips with old rolling stock. It really was a short trip as we only went about half a km backwards into the countryside then we stopped and went forwards through the station and into the middle of the Kawakawa high street where the track runs between the 2 lanes of traffic. Having created chaos going that way, we then reversed and did the same in the other direction back to the station! All in all, about 20 minutes for NZ$2 (80p).

While on the train, Tom had spotted the toilets so we walked up the high street and “spent a penny”. These are the Hundertwasser Toilets, so called because they were the first building designed by Frederick Hundertwasser in the southern hemisphere and were opened in 1999. They are amazing. All the walls are decorated with a mosaic of broken tiles and glass in a modernistic design, with the windows consisting of coloured glass bottles embedded in concrete so giving a similar effect as stained glass in churches. The columns outside the building look like bead necklaces on a huge scale. On the way back to the car, we saw the St John ambulance station and called in to say hello. St John provide emergency ambulances throughout NZ and each is manned 24/7 by a paid attendant and a volunteer. We spent 15 mins being shown round the station before heading north once more.

We reached Paihia at about 3.30 and stopped at the tourist info for details of Waitangi. There wasn’t any despite Waitangi being probably the most important place in NZ’s history and only a short distance away. So we just drove on and found the Waitangi Treaty Grounds information centre. It’s one of those places that gives you the feeling of being somewhere very special. Beautifully kept, with a superb audio-visual display telling the story of the build up to the signing of the Treaty which laid the foundation for the integration of Maori and the British peoples, still adhered to to this day – pretty much anyway.

As we had stopped more than we’d planned, we decided that we’d stay in Paihia for the night and found a Motel with (hooray) wireless internet access, which was fine until the service failed after about 40 mins.. We had super fish and chips sitting outside on the sea front – the rain had stopped by then! And wandered back to our room stopping off on the way for Tom to buy YET ANOTHER HAT!!

It’s now 11.00pm and we’ll say goodnight, speak to you all again tomorrow (we hope).