Took the scenic route on the drive from Motueka to Picton, going down Queen Charlotte Drive, which cut across from Havelock, along the top of the island, instead of going all the way back down to Blenheim. Nice views on the drive, over Pelorus Sound and Marlborough Sound. The road itself was about 35km long, with over 300 bends as it meandered up and down hills, which, rather than destroying my clutch, as feared, it just destroyed my left knee, with all the gear changing!
The hostel in Picton was located next to the cemetery, but they took advantage of this, calling themselves Tombstone Backpackers, with a coffin lid front door. Nice waterfront in the town, looking down Marlborough Sound. Got on the Interislander ferry the next morning, a boat that in its previous life was the Pride of Cherbourg operating out of Portsmouth...small world. The crossing took 3 hours, leaving behind hot and sunny Marlborough, arriving in cold and rainy Wellington. I paid the price for booking myself into a hostel based on the fact that it had off-street parking, because the hostel itself was an absolute hole. It hard for both the days I was in the city. Spent Monday morning in the awesome Te Papa museum, which was huge and encompassed pretty much everything to do with New Zealand. Spent the afternoon in an American bar watching the Packers win the Super Bowl, felt strange watching the game at 1pm with people on their lunch break, instead of 1am like in England...
Rain continued the next day on the drive up to Palmerston North, 90 mins north of Wellington, where I'd booked in 1 night due to there being the NZ Rugby Museum in the city, a museum that was in the process of being moved, so not much was on display. The sun returned on Wednesday as I headed to Wanganui, another 90 minutes north-west, which, by sheer coincidence, was staging the NZ Master's Games at the time. A quick read of the local newspaper told me that events such as Woodchopping, Salsa Dancing, Croquet, Dog Handling and Texas Hold'em Poker were happening that very day. I went to none of them, but instead spent most of the day contemplating whether being over the age of 50 would make any difference in 'sports' such as poker or dog handling...?
Nice drive on Thursday, along the left hand side of the Tongariro National Park, with views of Mt Ruapehu, an active volcano and highest peak in the region.
Stayed in Turangi for the night, and did a 90 minute walk around Lake Rotopounamu on the way to the town, followed by a 3 hour walk along the Tongariro River walkway from the town centre, a walk where, ironically, I could barely even hear the river, let alone see it for the majority of the walk, which made it rather pointless.
Drove 50km up the right hand side of Lake Taupo, the largest lake in NZ, to Taupo. The lake is, apparently, the size of Indonesia, a country which has the same population as NZ, which is just one of the 'interesting' facts I've learned along the way. Visited Huka Falls, a short drive from the town, where thousands of litres of water every second are funnelled down a narrow passage in the Huka River, and shot out over little ledge at the end.
From there I went the short distance to the Craters of the Moon, a large open space of active geothermal land, where geysers, mud pools and steam holes have been popping up for the last 50 years, and it was cool to see steam just erupting from the ground all over the place, despite the strong smell of rotten eggs.
Up to Rotorua tomorrow, followed by the Bay of Plenty on the north-eastern coast.
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