The next morning, we left Narelle to fly home in the afternoon, and we four headed south. We found a very different cafe off the road which provided a much needed coffee and snack. Our next stop was Raglan which is a seaside town, quite busy on this Sunday with families enjoying the summery weather with seaside picnics and activities. It’s unusual for us to witness the black, shiny sea sand, which is common on this western side of NZ.
We detoured to the pretty Bridal Falls which were approached by a beautiful rain forest walk.
We were a little confused about where to go next as our GPS (we’ve named her Gloria) wasn’t much help! So I was confident I knew the way, and to my delight, (but not everyone’s in the car), we found a dirt road which wound up and down over the hills. We saw beautiful scenery but it was slow driving and we were a little worried we were lost! We were relieved to eventually reach a sealed road and find Kawhia, a predominantly Māori seaside village, where we saw the locals also enjoying the lovely weather. You can clearly see the black sand!!
Keeping in touch with the anniversary celebrations, we detoured to the Waitomo Valley as Anne worked here in her youth, and Greg & Anne honeymooned at the lovely old hotel 50 years ago! Sadly, the hotel is currently closed so we had to undertake a bit of trespassing to have photo opportunities and for Anne to walk down memory lane.
Our next accommodation out of Te Kuiti, was on a dairy farm so quite a change from the hustle & bustle of city life. The house was beautiful, set in rolling hills - but being there only one night, we hardly saw a cow!
We awoke Monday morning to rain - just as well we had a driving day planned so it really didn’t interfere with any activities. The rain became very heavy as we travelled south which made conditions unpleasant for the driver, and the low cloud reduced visibility so we missed all of the spectacular snow capped mountains of Mount Ruapehu within the Tongariro National Park. We had a stop at Foxton Beach to have a bit of late lunch before we arrived in Wellington. Today we spent the day exploring the city and feel we have a good feel of this pretty city. The view from the lookout at Mt Victoria gives a fantastic panaromic view - even if the road there was very narrow and windy. We were absolutely blessed to enjoy a glorious sunny day so all the views were spectacular.
We drove around much of the harbour and found a lovely cafe called the Spruce Goose, where we enjoyed a late lunch. GPS ‘Gloria’ did manage to get us to the Parliament House area, where we also found the beautiful old St Paul's church.
We completed our tour with a ride on the cable car which was a little underwhelming, but gave us more views of the city.
Tomorrow we once more pack up with the Napier area as our next destination. We can see the end of of trip now as we leave Auckland on Sunday. Not many more blogs! The forecast is for more lovely weather - in hindsight we needed to pack more summer clothes. We aren’t complaining though as we feel we’ve been particularly lucky with the sunny warm days. We trust all readers are enjoying good times and good health. Love from the Taylors and Brays ❌❌❌
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