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Published: December 30th 2007
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Freja and tired Eskil watching last years Danish "Julekalender"07.12.07
Woke up to another sunny day and got ready for the final stage on the North Island to the bottom part with the capital city Wellington as the main attraction.
Tine had planned a short detour to Bunnythorpe just outside Palmerston North to visit the local primary school, the reason for this was that the principal of Bunnythorpe school, Mr Doug Drysdale, had been visiting her school in August ’06 as part of an exchange programme with her principal - you could wonder who got the better end of that deal. Unfortunately, Doug wouldn’t be able to be there himself due to the fact that he had to go visit his son in Whangarei - that was one long drive we thought. While Tine was shown around the school Paul stayed with Freja and Eskil stayed in the campervan who were too shy to accompany her and also because Bunnythorpe wasn’t worth a walk around “town”.
We were a bit late at arriving at the school because of a very windy day which made it a bit difficult to drive. When Tine got into the school she was met by two children, Logan (8) and Faith (9), who
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Time for another scenic view, but not for Freja had got the assignment of showing her around. They had prepared a little welcoming speech and we started to walk around the tiny school with about 55 pupils. We first tried to get into the youngest class (age 5 to about 7+) but they were taking a test so we continued into the next class, called the Kowhai class. They are between 7 and 9. Logan and Faith gave a little speech to introduce me and I very quickly ended up sitting on a chair telling about Denmark, our school, Christmas, our alphabet and so on.
I could have been there for hours answering questions. They were very curious and interested and a lot of fun to talk to. What stroke me was how little they new about Europe and anything outside New Zealand actually. Even the teachers’ knowledge of our part of the world was very limited. I did find that a bit strange because New Zealand is still part of the Commonwealth and (quite proudly I had been told) see the English queen as their queen - contradictory to the Australians who would rather be a republic. They were taught two other languages besides English, Maori and
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Akatarawa Rd. is a nightmare for campervans sign language.
I also took some time inside the younger class later, but they got so focused on asking me about wild animals and dinosaurs that all other questions became uninteresting. They were quite a noisy bunch and had great difficulty sitting still. The youngest had turned 5 a week ago and had begun school the same day. I wonder how much knowledge they actually succeed in getting into these very young children, but perhaps they just end up having more time getting to know elementary stuff about school, math and language and of course dinosaurs.
Afterwards they showed me the rest of the school and the playground, which didn’t take long due to the size. They are only 3 classes (and 3 teachers so you better get on with your colleagues!) and when they are about eleven they start going to another school in Palmerston North. A fun experience seeing a school with such a different set up and size.
After 1½ hour we continued our journey and stopped for lunch somewhere just outside Palmerston North, which we had on the charming Woolworth parking lot after buying some ingredients. From Palmerston North there are two options
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Clouds are hanging low in Upper Hutt Valley to travel to Wellington, either via SH1 which follows the west coast (but without sea views) or SH2 which passes the east side of Tararua Range. We took the fastest route via SH1. That was until Paul decided to take a shortcut at Waikanae to Upper Hutt - where our camping was located - via the scenic Akatarawa Rd. On the road map this looked like a logical short cut in stead of driving all the way down to Wellington and then up north again through Hutt Valley, and there weren’t any warnings about this road in our NZ travel bible.
What a journey this became as this road was mostly a very narrow one lane road, extremely windy with a steep fall to one side and the mountain to the other side and it felt so dangerous with cars approaching us with 60-70 k an hour around bends so sharp you had no possibility of seeing if there was anything coming from the other side. Paul used the horn before entering every bend but little did it help since the others didn’t take notice and we were sitting with our hearts in our throats all through trip!
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The Kelburn Cable Car This was definitely not a road that was suitable for campervans. Later our campsite landlord told us that he preferred to take this road at night as you can see the other cars coming round the bend due to their headlights at that time of day.
We were all relieved when we finally hit the normal road in Upper Hutt and drove in to Harcourt Holiday Park, 35 km northeast of Wellington. It was not very busy here so we could just pick a spot we felt was best. Though nicely located in native bushland and along a river there was not much to do. Had dinner and planned next day’s activities in Wellington.
08.12.07
Woke up to a rainy day, but this was not going to affect Freja and Eskil’s mood as they were going to see ‘mormor’ in the afternoon. Had breakfast and left for Wellington at 11am and it was a nice drive through Hutt Valley and along Days Bay. We checked the driving time from our camping ground to the Interislander Ferry terminal exit as we were going to catch the ferry to the South Island two days later. It was a
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Striking view from Kelburn Cable Car down to Wellington Harbour 40min drive at normal traffic conditions. Arrived in Wellington 10min later and easily found our way to a car park at the harbour. We had decided to use the main city retail opportunities to do some Xmas shopping. In Wellington this means going to Lambton Quay where the main retail activity is. From here you can also take a ride with the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens with superb views from the top. McDonald’s was conveniently located at the entrance to the cable car station so Freja and Eskil had a burger for lunch and afterwards Tine and Paul had a strange tasting pie/sandwich which was washed away with a latte at a café next door.
And up we went with the cable car, which was especially appreciated by Eskil. We spent some time in the informative cable car museum displaying old restored cars and engines - and souvenirs of course again most welcome to Eskil - and learned thtat this has been a success full way of transport for people living in Kelburn and working in the city centre for more than a century. In fact the investment in the cable car was financed through land
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Freja watching Eskil climb in the Botanic Gardens' playground sale of the attractive residential plots on the steep hill of Kelburn. (The same principle is used for the development of the Ørestad Metro and Ørestad city in Copenhagen).
As there still was 1½ hour left before we had to pick up Birgit at the central station we took a stroll in the Botanic Gardens and Eskil had some fun at the playground. Took the cable car back and tried the playground in Frank Kits Park before heading for the central station where Birgit arrived on time at 4.30pm. Happy family reunion with Freja and Eskil forming a Xmas welcome party wearing Xmas hats.
Eskil couldn’t stop telling “mormor” what he had experienced so far! Drove back to Upper Hutt with a stopover for grocery shopping at Countdown in Lower Hutt.
Back at Harcourt Holiday Park we all enjoyed the extra space which was provided by the en suite self contained unit which we had rented for Birgit and Eskil immediately took the opportunity to exchange his campervan bed for mormors’ double bed. Paul also got acquainted with the nasty sandflies and this turned out to be a shit fly (he got the bite at the dump
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Freja on her way to the Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa station!) as he had an allergic reaction to its bite.
09.12.07
Woke up to a warm and sunny day which was planned to be in Wellington again to visit the Museum of New Zealand - Te Papa a five-storey complex of exhibitions about NZ’s history, landscapes and different cultures. Parked at our convenient Queens Wharf parking and headed straight for Te Papa though with some difficulty as we had to pass by the inviting harbour side drinking and eating establishments with outdoor seating areas. We entered the museum and Eskil of course went straight for the museum’s souvenir shop dragging the rest of the party with him.
By now Eskil had gathered a nice collection of pencils and erasers from his pocket money. Despite the size of the museum and the different options we quickly decided what to and not to see and started our tour with visiting the exhibition about NZ’s volcanic landscapes. A nice interactive exhibition where we especially enjoyed the experience of being in a dark shaking living room during a “real” earthquake. Also the film about the latest outburst of Mt Ruapehu (1996) was catching and when we then heard about the
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It's nice to be able to bike again! Pacific earthquake 2 weeks later near Gisborne this really puts into perspective the ongoing volcanic activity in this country. We also visited the exhibition concerning the early settlements and animal life with the intruding Australian possum (150 years ago) as possibly the most unwanted animal today threatening a. o. the native kiwi bird.
We had lunch at Te Papa’s (outdoor) restaurant which served an excellent fish and chips closely watched by the “local” seagals who not very patiently waited for us to finish.
It was getting quite warm and we took a stroll along the harbour towards popular Oriental Parade and Beach. Paul went back to buy a Xmas gift for Freja and to pick up the van and take it to Oriental Beach. Tine, Freja and Eskil took a bike ride in the harbour area with Eskil steering the vehicle as he was too short to reach the pedals. We all joined up at Oriental Parade where Paul was very lucky to find a parking spot just in front of the beach. Paul and Birgit went for a swim even though the water was quite cold.
Suddenly there was a lot of excitement on the beach
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View towards central city from Mt. Victoria lookout as dolphins were spotted in the harbour. Boats were following them and people went for a long swim to try to swim with them - something you normally only can do on an expensive organized trip (and if your lucky). We ended our afternoon by taking the van up Mt Victoria (200m) to the lookout point from where there are fine views of the city, harbour and surrounding region. We could see the weather in Hutt Valley was not looking good and it soon started to rain on our way back to the camping site. Stopped over for grocery shopping at Lower Hutt and spent a rainfull evening in Upper Hutt, but satisfied with a nice last day on the North Island.
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