Wharekauhau Featherston

Left Camp site around 10:45 AM, weather has totally changed and it is raining heavily. Travelled some 10 Km and the rain had stopped with bright but cloudy skies. Travelled a further 10 Km and guess what, its raining again; weather so fickle!! Arrived in Palmerston North around 11:30 Am and it now raining cats and dogs, so we decided to drive straight through but this is a nice town slightly ...

So the whole day was given over to joining a Lord of the Rings Tour to notionally go and visit the sets used in all three films. I only just managed to get there in time thanks the to gale that was blowing up the main drag making it hard to make any progress.

Anyways the tour was interesting but not so much for the locations – there really is little to see in any of these sites for the simple reason that the film company have had to remove all trace of their ...

From Rotorua, we drove and drove and drove. Our camper van is pretty good this time. From what it lacks in cool design and character of the John Lennon van, it makes up for in comfort. It is much newer and much easier to drive. And what a drive. New Zealand is most definately the best place I have ever been to. I loved every where else, particularly Thailand, but I just feel so natural and happy here. Driving along winding roads, each new turn presents a ...

... from the Video Archive; go to concerts at the Hole in the Wall, take long mood walks along the bay after I broke up with some Welly boi... But.. Rootless as it were, I spent most of my time either eavesdropping on the daylife or spun up in the nightlife... I think I'll break it up into places from here... *Flat White is a coffe consisting of two shots of espresso and one shot of steamed milk

... ducks. We hung out on the beach near the dock while Devon played in the sand. He is all boy - he really likes to eat dirt, rocks and sticks. I went for a run along the shore while April played a soccer game. Got in a good hour and made it down the shore to where there were no more cars, houses, etc. Just me and a ...

... our door.  I lay there for a while before realizing, it was the middle of the night after all, that Chris was still not in the room.  It occurred to me that he might be having trouble getting in.  That, in fact, was the case.  He was very grateful, but I never did establish if the key was faulty (always a possibility), or if he was simply too "tired" to work it properly. Tomorrow we leave Wellington and the North Island, crossing by ferry to the South Island. Stay tuned. - Gretchen

... we had a wonderful site overlooking the harbour & the journey there was just awesome, ( i have not used this word for sometime have i ? so it just shows how we rated this small harbour town) although this is a french orientated town yes stu coped very well, also pat with all her delving into the family tree has found we have some distance cousins on our fathers side, so this was an errand i had to enquire about, we went to the museum whom were very ...

On the road from Napier we phoned to change our ferry crossing and decided to camp overnight in Featherston. Our crossing was at 10.30am and this was close enough to Wellington to finish the drive in the morning. Then disaster.......................... as we were driving we noticed the temperature gauge going up and Betsy started to overheat. Literally as we pulled into our camp spot something went pop and there was ...

It was again one of those crazy rides. Yesterday from Wellington to Featherston where we stayed last night. It's only about 1 1/2 hrs. from Wellington, but with hair pin turns & extroadinary views. We stayed with Tamara & Dave, a lovely older couple (about my age :~) ) who have a bed & breakfast here. Tamara used to take Abby's classes ...

So, here I am, 640kms from Auckland and about 80kms from Wellington. Stuck in Featherston...yeah...stuck... After leaving Waiouru I headed south through the little mentioned (in the guidebooks) region of Rangitikei. It's kind of sandwiched in between the Central Plateau and Manawatu (to the south). On my last trip through this part of the world I didn't take any fotos, so today I snapped away and took over 70 shots - a few of ...