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Published: September 21st 2010
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Cheap and tacky Qantas flight from Brisbane to Auckland after a slightly stressful early morning. The people at the Jucy office forgot we were dropping the camper van off early so we had to just leave the van outside the locked compound and Dee jumped the fence to leave the keys somewhere safe before we raced to the airport. Anyway, yay New Zealand! Got stopped going through Customs with the didgeridoo, which had to be unpacked and checked for insects. But this did distract officials from Holly's illegal collection of Asian shells, Australian sand and a chicken noodle cuppa soup so it worked out ok. Picked up our hire car, a very worn 'rent-a-dent' Nissan Sunny and got on the road.
We spent the weekend with our friends Christine and Steve in their lovely home in Howick, east Auckland.They lived close by Cockle Bay so we did a few walks to explore the area. Saturday we went into the city (which hadn't improved that much since we visited in 2000, still not a favourite of ours) and spent the morning at the Auckland Museum's 'Kai to Pie' exhibition. Kai = Food in Maori. There was Brazilian cooking (and eating!) and
a Capoeira dance demonstration. Good fun. Next day we took an early morning ferry to uninhabited Motuihe Island to help plant native trees. The trees were more like small shrubs (e.g. Teatree) so not too back breaking and the sun was shining so we had a good laugh and were rewarded with a 'sausage sizzle' afterwards. Had a great time catching up with Christine and Steve, haven't seen them in 7+ years and making friends with their cats, Orion and Picasso - the cutest fluffiest Ragdoll cats we have even seen.
Then we drove south east to a tiny town called Matamata, now home to the LOTR Hobbiton set. Despite us checking on their website, the site was currently undergoing reconstruction (for the new Hobbit film) so would be just a building site........but we could still visit it for $65 each, er no thanks. Bit disappointed about that. Consoled ourselves with a trip to coastal Tauranga and a night Couch Surfing with a cool couple called Shane and Beverely in their rural home. Shane was a record producer and Beverely was a naturopath. They cooked us a cracking lamb roast and Shane let us have a go on his
drum kit, which was once owned by Pearl Jam! When he told us, Holly misunderstood him and thought he'd said 'Pill Jem' (it's the NZ accent you see) and was a bit underwhelmed because she'd never heard of that band. She got it eventually. Shane and Bev also filmed us for a documentary film they are making about Couch Surfing. I should image we'll only make the cutting room floor as we always go a bit wooden in front of a camera but it was nice to be included!
Onto Taupo, quicky past stinky Rotorua. We went to see huge Lake Taupo, impressive Huka Falls and a cool geothermic park where we got close up to boiling hot geysers, multicoloured algae and bubbling mud pools (that smelt of pea and ham soup cooking weirdly!). We liked little Taupo. Celebrated our anniversary there and stayed with another Couch Surfing family too, a midwife and her police cheif husband in their huge new build! Next we drove to Napier and had a quick look around the town at the Art Deco buildings before driving to Masterton.
We had been looking forward to our visit to Masterton, in the Wairarapa wine
region, for ages as we were going to stay with Holly's Auntie Stephenie and Uncle Ron in their newly built country home. The last time we visited in 2000, they lived in Wellington and the Masterton plot was just a sheep field. Holly was in the US when Stephenie last visited the UK so it was great to see her and catch up. We'd also planned this part of our trip to be a break from backpacking and a time to endulge in some quailty R&R!! Which is exactly what we did. We spent quite a bit of time catching up on sleep and doing normal stuff like cooking, shopping, watching TV, gardening and laundry! Felt right at home we did! Stephenie and Ron have a very comfortable home set in 10 acres of grassland. Sheep graze on most of it and they have their own mini vineyard. So quiet and peaceful. Beautiful views. Bliss.
We did leave the house too and had many days out to lovely Martinborough, rugged Castle Point and Palmerston North amoung other places. Holly had a free manicure and pedicure from the beauty students at the university where Stephenie worked, bonus!! We went to
Wellington a couple of times, really liked it there. We drove there one day and went to the brilliant Te Papa Museum and to the underwhelming Weka Workshop Museum (my understairs cupboard is bigger than that place) but got a speeding ticket on the way home. Boo. We went on the train the next time and met up with Stephenie's sister-in-law Judy, who is the PA for MP Tau Henare at Parliament so organised us our own tour of the place with her friend Val. Very interesting to see inside the ''Beehive'' and the much older and grander buildings next door.
After a wonderful fortnight in Masterton, we felt refreshed and energised and ready to contiune our journey. We said very sad goodbyes to Stephenie and Ron and got the Interislander ferry over to the South Island.
Thank you Christine & Steve and Stephenie & Ron. We had the best time.
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