Lower Hutt City

Down New Zealand we go!! We took a drive down to lake Taupo and treated ourselves to a night in a cheap motel. We were both very happy to see a shower!!! However noodles were still on the cards because we only had a microwave. We sprang up the next morning and did our hike from the Waikato river (the largest river in NZ) to the Haku falls. This was another stunning walk through beautiful green surroundings. We tried to eat our scrummy lunch at the falls, but were surrounded by very pretty but very rude birds. On our picnic table was 9 staring at us, edging their way forward. But behind us was another 12 sitting in a tree ready to swoop in...we didn't finish our lunch. Aiden was never going to risk losing some of his lunch to an animal. So we headed back to the car and started our drive towards Wellington, hoping we would come across somewhere to stay on the way. We did, yay!!!!!! The campsite we happened to stumble across was situated in the most beautiful surroundings. Behind us was a cliff with a massive shear drop, at the bottom a nice stream running through, and we were once again surrounded by lush green trees. Noone else was around (this scared me, Aiden loved it). We took the opportunity to go and stare at the sky whilst we were cooking our noodles (that's right more noodles), the stars here in Mangaweka are beautiful. After another delightful night of watching lost, followed by a very cosy nights sleep, we made our way down to Rimutaka forest park, where we will set up base near Wellington. Once again, another stunning campsite with a stream surrounded by trees. All our campmates seem to be loan men with white cars, long hair and suspicious looking beards...Aiden will be escorting me to the toilet at night time. Aiden kindly offered to make my gourmet noodles tonight as I was a bit fainty (my own fault, not enough vegetables or water, lesson learnt), however as we settled in the cosy van and began eating our noodles Aiden nearly heaved into the bowl...His body has finally rejected the noodles 😂. The weather was interesting during the night. Heavy rain, strong winds, thunder and lightening simultaneously (no gaps in between the two so we were right in the storm). I laid there very smugly snuggled up in my camper van, thinking of the group of school children who had turned up and were sleeping in tents, pahahaa!!!

The next day the weather remained very bleak, so instead of taking another hike, we ventured into Wellington to see what it had to offer. The answer, not a lot! I find it absolutely amazing that a country's capital city can have so little to offer. It makes Mansfield and Ipswich look like a metropolis. Shops selling actual items such as clothes, books etc... are few and far between. And there are no nice restaurants, but all little places to eat, mostly low cost and a bit shabby. It was crazy. We kept walking thinking we would find something. We didn't. However, all this walking made us both a bit on the dizzy side, so we decided to treat ourselves to a meal at a Malaysian restaurant. Eating out here is so cheap. We ordered 3 meals between us and a coke and it was less than £15. The food was incredible, especially the curry. The curry contained 2 pieces of broccoli, we were in heaven. We took a piece each and savoured every bite. Anyone who knows Aiden would be shocked at the look of satisfaction on his face as he tucked into his piece of broccoli, haha. We scoffed down our green curry, crispy chicken on rice and half of our dumplings, and bagged the remaining dumplings to enjoy later. We headed back after this and due to lack of anything to do in Wellington found ourselves back at the campsite with plenty of day light left to play some games of Rummy. I won, Aiden is not happy. So once again, as the evening descended on us we snuggled down to watch the next disc of lost, with our dumplings and the most disgusting bowl of condensed tomato soup ever. But, tragedy happened, the disc won't work. We've tried everything. The loss has hit us hard. We've had to skip to the next disc, but soothed our woes with a pack of cookies. On a happier note, we absolute love our nights in the camper. Aiden describes them as "a dream come true". It's a dream we never really knew we had, but it's so nice to be snuggled in the back of a camper every night, surrounded by beautiful scenery and stars without a care in the world. Apart from me being scared when the campsites are empty and checking the doors are locked 50 times. Sorry Aiden.

This morning we took a hike through the Orongorongo valley. What can I say, another beautiful walk. This threw in another element though...walking across unsturdy bridges...I think this is the first time I have seen Aiden walk faster than me 😅 We walked for an hour and a half until we made it to the end of the trail, and settled at the stream to eat our picnic. On the walk we saw a very gruesome dead possom and studied rata trees. That's all the information I can give you that's different to our other walks. Afterwards we took a trip to the supermarket and treated ourselves to some tortellini, yay not noodles!!! We also treated ourselves to a bottle of cider, that's right, a plastic litre bottle. We are cheap, stingy, and we like it. So we drank our cider, played cards (I won again), ate our yummy tortellini, and got shamefully drunk off our bottle of cider. We're not made of tough stuff any more. So, we are now off North again. We cannot climb 'mount doom' at the moment due to bad weather, so we are driving 6 hours north to Waitomo to try and visit the glowworm caves, and attempt the climb on Monday fingers crossed!Read more