Palmerston North

We spent the night in a car park in the centre of Hastings which unbeknown when we parked up (as we arrived in the dark) was also next to a train line. We therefore woke up numerous times to the sound of the train passing and shaking the van, as well as the ring of the alarm to signal to the cars the train was passing. To top it all off it was pouring with rain, which hitting the roof of the van, added to the city centre orchestra that we had unsuspectingly fallen asleep in the middle of.

We had to be out of the spot by 9am so we woke up early (not that we weren't already awake), had a quick breakfast and were on our way.

Wellington was a 3+ hour drive at around 300km so we decided to break it up with a stop in Palmerston North, or Palmy to the locals. There we could take a warm shower for a dollar in the city library, do a little food shop and visit the NZ All Blacks Rugby Museum. The memorabilia and story of the beginnings of the game were great and they even had old Lions jerseys from years gone by as well as the real life whistle that they use to start the first game of every World Cup.

After the museum we were back on the road. When we finally arrived in Wellington after fighting our way through rush hour traffic (it's been a while since we have been in an actual city with traffic) we picked a nice free marina for tonight's camp spot so fingers crossed for some blue skies and great views in the morning.Read more