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Published: January 18th 2018
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Woodville
How many 'Woodvilles' can you get on a signpost? Yes, I know, this next episode has come along very quickly, but as this was to be our last stop on the North Island, I thought it was a covenient point to finish a post, before we move on to South Island.
Now, when we talk about 'Wellington', a number of different things come to mind. The Duke of Wellington, of course..........Napoleon's conqueror at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815; Beef Wellington, that classic cut of beef wrapped in pastry (or an upmarket Cornish Pasty to some), or even Paddington's iconic red Wellies, all the way from Peru!
But today we are on our way to another famous Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand and the southern tip of the North Island. The journey is about 220 miles and we knew that, for the most part, it was likely to be fairly uneventful. In addition, Wellington was always only going to be an overnight stop, en-route to Christchurch, mainly because our itinerary was a bit too tight to spend any more time in Wellington, but also because we had heard that the city wasn't really a destination in which to spend much time anyway.
We split the
Pakurathi Forest 1
The view down the valley from the peak. driving between all four of us, which certainly seemed to make the journey pass a lot quicker, but evenso, the first three quarters of the trip were, as expected, pretty dull. We did stop in the small town of Woodville for a comfort break, which was notable for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there was the signpost, showing the distance from other 'Woodvilles' elsewhere in the world - personally, I'm not sure that I've heard of any of them before, but that may just be me!!
The second reason was an unfortunate 'staining' that occurred to the back of my shorts when I paid a visit to the loo! Now, trust me, the story is definitely not that bad! It's just that I was sitting on a wooden bench, waiting for my turn in the facilities, only to get up and find my shorts covered in spots of oily muck exuding from the bench! After snagging a new polo shirt on a fence the day before, this is not boding well for my holiday wardrobe! Not only that, I had to put up with the ridicule of my so-called 'friends and wife' accusing me of having skid marks on
Pakurathi Forest 2
The Rimutaka Crosding memorial. my shorts......as President Trump might say 'That accusation is fake news. These are genuine oil spots and probably the best oil spots the world has ever seen!' I did say that there wasn't a lot happening on this part of the trip!!!
About 60 miles from Wellington, we entered the Pakurathi Forest in the Rimutaka Mountain Range and the scenery got a whole lot more interesting. At the peak point, we pulled over at a stop off and the view was fantastic. There was also a fascinating memorial to the thousands of NZ infantrymen who trained for World War One and the Western Front, by trekking Rimutaka Crossing for 3 days from Wairarapa to Trentham over this peak. How this beautiful trek prepared them for the mud, trenches and horror of the French battlefields is another matter!
We were now on the homeward run through the suburbs of Upper Hutt and Lower Hutt into Wellington and we were very soon on to a major motorway into the city, with the traffic suddenly getting very busy. We needed to get to our hotel, the Bay Plaza on Oriental Bay and with some fine driving by Tim and some expert
Hire Car
The Beast is returned and......I don't mean Tim! navigating by yours truly, through a maze of one way streets, we reached our destination, but where was the hotel? Mandy spotted a building covered in scaffolding and said 'I hope that isn't it'...........it was!!! The Bay Plaza was undergoing renovation, (note to selves: we need to have a word in Trailfinders' shell like about this place!).
But before we checked in, we planned to drive the 30km Marine Drive around Wellington's coast line, but immediately ran into a major traffic jam and after 30 minutes of phaffing about, we decided we were too tired and 'viewed out', so returned to our hovel, sorry hotel! We checked in and were offered what amounted to a battered supermarket trolley to help get our bags to our rooms. We found we were on the 10th floor which was, at least, above the blue dust wrapping around the scaffolding and we did have a sort of bay view; BUT, on a baking hot day in Wellington, there was no air conditioning and the windows opened about an inch!! So far, Wellington was living DOWN to expectations! The only good news was that Tim and I had managed to return the hire car
Wellington Waterfront 1
Not quite the Little Mermaid! without a problem.
It was about 4pm and we all desperately needed a beer, so we went out and headed for the Waterfront area, aiming to find a bar, have something to eat and then get an early night, bearing in mind that we needed to be up about 5am tomorrow to get to the airport for our flight to Christchurch.
Well, this is when things took a turn for the better. We found a terrific bar, had a couple of beers and a great Asian Beef Salad (Sue had mushrooms) following which we all seemed to get our second wind. We decided to walk to the city's cable car, which took us right along the Waterfront and through some of the main city streets and it was really lovely. The Waterfront area has been put together with a great deal of thought and was beautifully clean, with some cracking street art and furniture. There was even a diving platform for people to jump from varying heights into a canal and lock area just off the bay - Health and Safety would have a field day back at home!!
The cable car is really a funicular railway
Wellington Waterfront 2
Some of the quirky street art. travelling from Lambton Quay up to the Botanic Gardens in the Kelburn Park area. Another fab little ride and the views over the city and the bay were fantastic and in the beautiful evening sunshine, it was pretty spectacular. There is an observatory in the gardens which does night time star-gazing, but unfortunately, not on the night we were there! There is also an old Krupp German field gun pointing out over the harbour, which the NZ infantry pinched as a souvenir from WW1, the only gun of its type remaing in the world.
After a stroll back to our hotel, our opinion of Wellington had changed completely. Although quite a big city, with many of the usual big city issues, it has a truly wonderful setting and we saw some beautiful places. And what's more, like everywhere else in NZ so far, the people have been very warm and welcoming; totally laid back and with a great sense of fun and humour AND, better still, they get the English!
So that's it, we've done the North Island and tomorrow we venture south.
Before I finish, rather than hit you with yet more quiz questions so soon,
Wellington Waterfront 3
A lovely inlet from the Bay. a few facts about Wellington for you to mull over:
* It is the southernmost capital city in the world;
* It was named in honour of the Duke of Wellington and took over from Auckand as the country's capital in 1869;
* In 1893, New Zealand's parliament, located in Weilngton, became the first country in the world to give women the vote!
TTFN
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Tim
non-member comment
Checking!
You didn’t mention the fact that some of the ladies were ‘checking out’ the male statue on the waterfront?