Day 61: Palmerston North to Napier

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Rather sadly, I said goodbye to Sue. It was time to leave; they needed the houseroom, but I was tired of travelling and homesick and I longed to go home. It had been good to be part of a family for a few days, even if it wasn't my own.

There were 50-mile-an-hour winds all the way to Napier, and the bus swayed disconcertingly. It hurt my shoulder. We drove along the very edge of a steep gorge, with a lovely whitewater river in it. On the other riverbank, there were train tracks and the occasional tunnel.

We stopped for lunch at a Country Cafe in Matamau, and I had an excellent lamb pie. Only two restrooms were available, and one was the restroom of a motel unit, opened up for use by the bus passengers.

When we pulled out of Matamau, the driver said that we would be crossing the Taranaki Plains, and that the winds were likely to get worse. He asked if anyone wanted motion-sickness bags. I took some, in case; I'm a good sailor, but some other kinds of motion can make me ill very quickly, especially a whirligig. Luckily I did not need them.

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Photos

Palmerston North's Square
It was all squares (and rectangles.)

River
Not the one in the gorge

River
The one in the gorge. Note the train tracks.