Feb 1 - Heading south, way south!

We were on the bus and heading south by 7:30 a.m. today. We had a lot of ground to cover. Our destination was Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. I got a takeout coffee to drink on the bus. I perked up after that.

As we drove, Linda kept us spellbound with her seemingly limitless knowledge of geography, geology, history, culture, Maori legends, flora, fauna, the timber industry, sheep and cattle and dairy farming and a hundred other topics, all while driving a full-sized bus. This lady really, really knows how to multi-task.

Our first stop was at the spectacular Huka Falls on the Waikato River (New Zealand’s longest river) that drains Lake Taupo. A few hundred metres upstream from the Huka Falls, the Waikato River narrows from approximately 100 metres across into a canyon of hard volcanic rock only 15 metres across. This causes the beautiful blue-green water to thunder through the opening with enormous force - we got to witness over 200,000 litres of water per second barrelling over the 11 meters high waterfall. The effect is nature's large-scale equivalent of a fire hose feeding into a very fine nozzle.

At 10:30 a.m., we stopped in the lakeside town o Taupo for morning coffee and tea. We have discovered Richard Harris Cafés and are now determined to work our way through their entire fabulous bakery selection. I enjoyed a ginger loaf in the glorious sunshine of another warm New Zealand day.

Watered and fuelled, we pressed on, learning more about volcanic action and shifting of tectonic plates than we ever thought we would need. This country must truly be a geologist’s dreamland. We stopped for lunch in Taihape, an entirely forgettable little town, except for one thing - it is the self-declared Gumboot Capital of the world. Now for those of you who don’t know what gumboots are, they are the tall black rubber boots, often with orange toes, favoured by farmers near and far. They are also known as wellies or Cape Breton sneakers. In bucolic Taihape at the Gumboot Festival, you can do gumboot racing, gumboot flower arranging, gumboot decorating and of course, gumboot tossing - aka wellie whanging. The garbage cans in town have wellies on them; even the signs on the public washrooms are in the shape of gumboots. Visitors are greeted as they come into town with an enormous wellie sculpture made of corrugated steel. Being a career steelworker, that makes me very, very happy. Alas, the Quilted Gumboot fabric store has closed down. I would have liked to add to my enormous fabric stash from there.

Back on the bus. We passed lots of farms and went through several small towns. By favourite was Bulls were the police station is Const-A-Bull; the library is Read-A-Bull; the café is Delect-A-Bull; the public parking is Park-A-Bull; and the public toilets are Relieve-A-Bull. You get the drift. There is some seriously good humour in New Zealand.

We made a quick comfort stop in Levin and pressed on to the Kapiti Coast Electric Tramway. There, we enjoyed a nostalgic trip on one of the original trams that served Wellington City. We rode the tram down almost to the shore passing a touching memorial to the 10 US Marines that drowned in an accident whlle stationed here during WWII. After a quick hike to the beach, we were rewarded with glorious views of the Tasman Sea. That’s the body of water that separates Australia and New Zealand. The area had been awash in activity for the day because there had been triathlons and duathlons and mountain bike races all day. After our trip on the tram, we enjoyed tea/coffee/juice and sweet treats. The volunteers at the museum are passionate about preserving Wellington’s tramway history and they are doing a spectacular job of it. They display the same ardour as their counterparts at the steam railway that we visited earlier in the week.

Finally, after a long, but very interesting day, we arrived at the hotel. As always, the staff were there to unload our luggage and our room keys were ready for us. We get treated like VIPs at each location - GPT has this tour business down to a science. There is a very scary thing in the bathroom here - a set of scales. I am NOT going anywhere near those things. I’ve had enough psychological trauma in my life recently.

We had a lovely dinner in the hotel restaurant. Beef tenderloin. Yum. Jenny and I ordered different desserts and swapped half way through. Both choices were fabulous. I’m going to live at the gym full time when I get home.

We had hope to go to fireworks down on the quay at 9:30 being put on for the Chinese New Year, but alas, the winds (for which Wellington is very well know) were blowing too hard - I have a corner room - I can hear the wind and almost feel the wind howling out there. The organizers will try again tomorrow. We are here for two nights, so maybe we will be available. Let’s hope for calmer weather.

I video chatted with Doug tonight. He’s still not back to 100%, but feeling better each day. He’s going to go to the Military Museum in Auckland tomorrow - the one where we admired the wonderful stain glass in the ceiling of the lobby - seems like weeks and weeks ago.Read more