Day 421-423: Wellington to Palmerston North, New Zealand


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Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Palmerston North
March 24th 2010
Published: March 27th 2010
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Wellington to Palmerston North


Tuesday, March 23rd


Mom Corne forwarded an email to us which brought big smiles to our faces. It dealt with confusion and waiting for God to do something, but God says to "get up and go. Give legs to your faith. I move on those who are moving." What a great message and how perfectly aimed at our current situation. We are so worried about missing the Lord's will and plan for us that we are pretty much paralyzed a lot of the time. We're waiting on Him to open the doors while He's waiting for us to move in faith and walk through the doors He'd already opened for us, even though we can't see these doors yet. It amazing how easily we forget and how many times He has to remind us of His goodness.

Like most great days, this one was sunny and beautiful with no sign of the gale that raged yesterday. After breakfast we went to visit the Te Papa museum where we met the world’s biggest squid on display. Caught in 2007 near Antarctica, she measures 4.5m and had eyes the size of soccer balls. Too bad they killed her so that we could look at her.

We wandered around, looking at a few other displays, but to be honest, museums doesn't hold much interest for us anymore. Just as we got tired of temples in Asia, we've gotten tired of museums in NZ. Still, if this was our first museum experience in NZ it would've been great.

After leaving the relics behind we went shopping for groceries, then visited the craft shop followed by a visit to an instrument shop. It's a dangerous place for us to be; all those gleaming instruments beckoning us, making our wallet itch... Anyway, paging through some music books we discovered that the "Ukulele" that Paddy gave Ferdi is actually a Mandolin Banjo. This new knowledge will definitely help in discovering how old it is and where it came from.

Back home we had lunch and watched a movie. Then Talita made date squares and prepared delicious vetkoek for dinner.

Today's highlights:
1. Meeting the giant squid.
2. Discovering that the Ukulele is actually a Mandolin Banjo.
3. Great vetkoek dinner.

Wednesday, March 24th


Lize had the day off so we had planned to go jogging (we seriously need some exercise) and then have a picnic on Mt Victoria, but when we woke the wind was howling outside again and soon it was raining horizontally, so we just stayed indoors all day.

While Talita was doing some admin on the laptop Ferdi made a necklace for her birthday pendant with waxed string, all the while chatting with Lize.

Later in the afternoon we watched a movie while Lize prepared a delicious pasta dinner. When she left for a Whiskey tasting evening for a friends birthday we enjoyed a few beers on the couch while laughing at more Scrubs episodes before calling it a night.

Today's highlights:
1. A nice chatty day with Lize.

Thursday, March 25th


A calm and sunny day dawned on Wellington. Because we're heading north today we got up early and gave Clive a tour of the Boesman before saying goodbye. Later we gave the same tour to Lize before she also left for work. We said goodbye thanking them for their kindness and knowing that we'd see them again in the not too distant future.

We had a long hot bath, packed our things, watched two more episodes of Scrubs, then gave Luki a big squeeze goodbye and headed out.

We drove to the Mt Victoria lookout, packed a few things for lunch and walked up to the viewing platform. From the lower platform we could see the airport and watched a plane land and another take off. When we looked down a pretty young kitty was looking up at us. We'd barely touched her before she collapsed in a display of pure pleasure. She wasn't a stray because she had a collar with the name Steve. Weird name for a female cat! Whatever her name, she was one of the most loving cats we'd ever encountered. She simply couldn't get enough attention and followed us all the way to the top platform before finding someone else to enchant.

We really enjoyed the view over Wellington. It's a beautiful area, but being situated near the Cook Straight had given Wellington a reputation as one of the windiest cities in the world. Apparently the city has about 173 days a year where the wind exceeds 60km/h (winds over 61km/h are considered gale-force). That's gale-force or near gale-force winds for almost half the year! Pretty hectic.

When we'd taken enough pictures of the view we went back down, meeting up with Steve again. We took a few more pictures by an old canon, then said goodbye to Steve and walked down the hill to find a picnic spot. Lize had baked a very tasty Cumin and cheese bread that we enjoyed with more cheese and jam.

With full bellies we bid Wellington farewell and headed north, taking the long and scenic route to Palmerston North. It was a windy drive and with Birdsy on the roof acting like a sail Ferdi had his hands full trying to keep the Boesman on the road.

We finally arrived in Palmerston North, quite a bit later than we had expected. The reason we came to Palmerston North was to meet Graeme. Without our knowledge he'd been following our blog for a long time and even came to meet us in Karamea when he was down there a few weeks ago. Unfortunately he arrived two days after we had left. Margaret had told us about his visit, but had no other info about him. Luckily he made contact and invited us to come by if ever we were in the area.

We arrived at his place, not knowing anything about him, only that he's retired. It's strange to meet someone that knows so much about you when you don't know the first thing about them. We immediately hit it off and felt comfortable in his home from the word go. We enjoyed a cuppa before his wife Lois came home. She's a midwife and was in the process of helping with a birth. Before we knew it she'd cooked up a lovely dinner and we had a meal while we got to know each other better. They love traveling as well and have done quite a bit of it. After dinner Lois had to go back to the birth, but returned later and gave us a heap of info on pregnancy and birth. It was a great evening and we chatted till almost midnight.

Today's highlights:
1. The view over Wellington.
2. Picnic lunch.
3. Meeting Graeme and Lois and spending a wonderful evening with them.

Thought for the day:
The more people we get to know the more we want to meet.



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27th March 2010

Happy Birthday Talita
Hello daar, Baie geluk Talita met jou verjaardag op 28 Maart 2010 ... dis nou al jou 2de verjaardag weg vd huis af. Jou pa het vandag julle kar laat was, die wiele gepomp en battery laat laai deur hom vir n spin te vat ... die kar is nog in n baie goeie kondisie en wag vir julle. Julle weet seker dat Laurike die Cape Epic in die Kaap ry saam met Oom Hentie en Hendrik. Dis altesaam 8 dae se ry en 722km in baie rowwe terrein ... enkel paadjies en tussen dennenaalde rof, rof!!! Laurike en Hannes , haar vriend was saam in n span en Hentie en Hendrik, die ander span. Laurike-hul was meer as n uur voor Hentie, maar toe word Hannes siek en Laurike moes toe alleen by Hendrik-hulle aansluit. Petra het laat weet dat sy party dae sat was, maar hulle 3 byt vas en sal dv more klaarmaak!!! Sy wil vlge jaar die Ysterman doen. Ek dink die Otter-roete het haar tuff gemaak. Bak maar vir jouself n lekker koek met 28 kersies op. Baaaaaaaaaaie liefde en drukke, Ma en Pa
28th March 2010

Veelsgeluk liewe maatjie
Baie geluk met jou verjaarsdag Talita, hoop jy het 'n fantastiese dag en al die oulike katjies van die omgewing kom kuier gelyk by julle. Liefde en groete. Leon & Melinda

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