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- May 27, 2016, 7:18pm
- ⛅ 12 °C
- Altitude: 134 m
- New ZealandWellingtonWellington CityKhandallah41°13’49” S 174°48’35” E
Travelling day
May 27, 2016 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C
From Waipukurau to Woodville to Wellington
The mornings are definitely on the way up! After a howling wind during the night, we awoke to a warm and sunny morning, allowing us to eat our breakfast outside (lucky, due to the fact that the kitchen was being cleaned at that time, funny how visitors want to use the kitchen at breakfast!). The owners had just taken over and learning how it all works.
Took the main road south, driving through the southern part of Hawkes Bay, a valley about 10 - 20km wide with mist covered hill ranges each side. Rained on & off but dry when we stopped at a small town called Woodville & had a walk about.
Continued on to Paraparaumu where we detoured off the main road to make our lunch at the beach, can see the NZ South Island from here. Brown sand, dirty brown water and an icy cold wind meant that no-one offerred to jump in for a swim.
The break must have upset our gps because from there to Wellington, it lost the plot - sent us on the wrong road off a roundabout and then at our destination at Wellington, we could see the campervan park site but the gps sent us further down the motorway then made us do a U turn and go back to where we had just passed.
Campground No. 6 in suburban Wellington is certainly the least appealing, it is basically a carpark with power points! It is behind the motel and the area is all tarred with a tiny kitchen and only 2 showers & 1 toilet, each for men & women, all to service 27 parking sites. Never mind, it was clean and very close to the ferry terminal and easy access by bus to the city.
We arrived mid arvo and after getting set up we ventured forth to inspect the city centre. At least 1, probably 2 scheduled buses failed to arrive but finally got one which had us into town pretty quick. Had a walk along the harbourside area, a stroll around the mall and shopping precinct till we found a mini supermarket where we got some dinner items and then found a return bus. Or rather a local gentleman who overheard us checking the timetable, directed us to the correct bus. Pretty chuffed with this turn of events, we didnt realise our day of mis-direction was to continue. The bus made pretty good time thru the Fri night traffic until another passenger speaks up, " Hey driver, you missed the turn off". Sure enough he missed the turn off which was about 300m from our stop. Being a motorway he couldn't get off, so he continued the rest of the route, dropping off all the other passengers and giving us the scenic tour of some Wellington suburbs before finally getting onto our road. He was apologetic but saw the funny side of it once he knew we weren't too upset. Pretty funny that he turned off the interior lights as he went past the bus depot in case they saw his bus still with passengers. All good, we just had the short walk back up to our carpark kampsite.
Lucky not many people wanting to use the kitchen, with us, a German family making spaghetti and a British couple microwaving pies & chips. Pretty crowded in there. Sue got the shortened version of the Germans family history but no luck with the Brits.
By the time we finished dinner it was situation normal - raining!
Overcast day with some sunny periods and showers and moderate to strong winds. Cool in Wellington.
Highlights
* more lovely farm land all the way to Wellington,
* quirky 2nd hand shop at Woodville,
* easy drive into Wellington despite gps cantankerous nature,
* nice walk along Wellington harbourside,
* scenic bus tour back to our van park and not having to pay extra for it.Read more