Another 6.30 start. We must be mugs! We tuck into jam and toast but with a banana special (what's special is that we eat a banana). The lodge lady suggested the gardens at the top of the hill and the seafront as two good walks. Given yesterday's sandblasting and that the sea front looks a bit grim -- a container port and the "famous" black sand -- we go for the gardens.
As it turns out they're not too bad, they've made the effort to spice the place up with lighting (though obviously they're not on during daylight) and treats for kids (and adults) of giants sleeping in hammocks with the little people running between the trees on rope bridges around them and flourescent animal shapes. It goes without saying that in the UK some ingrate would have scaled the trees, ripped the stuff down then left their illiterate calling card etched into the bark. They have a big amthitheatre and a suite of glasshouses joined together by tunnels called the fernery though all bar the first contain all but ferns.
We headed off for Mt. Taranaki with little prospect of seeing much, all but the base was shrouded in cloud. However, a snow capped peak poked through then a bit more and by the time we were on the Startford-East Egmont road (up the mountain) it was almost cloud free. There was cloud on the south east side apparently being sucked over the summit then slurped back down the north west side into a big cloud. I can't explain why that should happen, shouldn't the cloud just go round the side? But that was the visual impression.
We drove through East Egmont village (it appeared to be a motel and a holiday park) and up to the "plateau," a large gravel car park. We braved the freezing blustery wind for long enough to use the toilet but declined even the 5 minute "enchantment track." Watching the cloud suggested that the leeward side had a counter-rotation with cloud both moving up and down. I expect any physical geographer has a ready explanation for it all.
Having clearly justified the trip by recording some anomalous atmospheric conditions we retired to the "village" for a cup of coffee. The Mountain House had several photo-records of things including it's own 115 years or so (it was about fifty years before they had a telephone installed!) and some piccies of the peak including photos at the summit with no snow (2518m) and one of a doughnut shaped cloud hovering on its own just over the peak.
The cloud had been descending while we were at the plateau and so it was no surprise that when back on the flat the mountain had disappeared again. We had booked into Wellington YHA (a swingeing NZ$56 each night rather than the NZ$40 we've been used to) and so headed off. Not a terribly exciting drive it must be said.
Least inspiring was Wanganue where we stopped for lunch. Sadly it's not a great place, big but not great. We reluctantly pulled into Pizza Hut. I would have shamefacedly covered up this gastronomic low point but for their "lunch works" Monday-Thursday offer. This was where you get to eat all the pizza, salad, pasta and desert you can. Whether you'd want to or not is another matter but for those who could stomach it, it's a paltry NZ$6.95, that's barely £2!
Again, the post lunch drive had little to keep you interested, a lot of sheep, flatter more agricultural land. There managed to be a several kilometre tailback for a single roundabout shortly before the SH1 joined the SH2 just north of Wellington. But that was it.
The Wellington YHA seems a busy well set up place. I'm never quite sure if the YHA builds these itself or takes on old hotels. Either way they're glossy high rise affairs but you pay for the central location and lose the intimacy. And there's rarely any parking.
We've been stung for the ferry crossing [to the South Island], NZ$286 which they claim is a saving. It's much like the English Channel ferry operators charging themselves out of business. Why pay £200 to cross the channel when you can fly Easyjet to somehwere nice and rent a car for less? We've also booked ourselves onto the Tranz-Alpine crossing, Christchurch - Greymouth return for New Year's day. That should be good, a snip at NZ$132 each. Gulp. Both of the above will have to migrate into the exceptional items column. Let's hope we win the BP Karchingo! game (a free lottery ticket with NZ$25 of fuel) to pay for it.
YHA, Wellington S41.29293 E174.78398 Elev. 0m!
(excuse the supermarket).
We took a stroll around the local streets after launderying (much debate about whether the automatic detergent dispenser had done anything) including via what we thought was a cinema selling Lord Of The Rings, The Two Towers (LOTR TTT) tickets but it is a theatre obviously being used for the premiere. The premiere is on the 18th, we cross the Strait on the 17th, so it wasn't worth buying any...
We spot an Indian restaurant claiming to have transported the taste and feel of British, nay English, nay Birmingham curries to New Zealand. This has to be worth a go. Sporting the legend, "For the Taste of Pint & Curry"[sic] they sold a reasonble curry (well, Helen's Butter Chicken was fine, my Chef's special tasted of Stroganoff) but little resembled "home." I suspect they know there's a limit to how much Stoney Lane or Ladypool Road ambience the good burghers of Wellington are prepared to put up with. The furniture was decent quality, non-cheap knock-off stuff and they sold a wide selection of beers and wines. Having tried a few of Mac's brews now, I was intruiged by their "Real Ale." Brought to me at the brewer's advised 4 degrees Centigrade it was a little chillier than I expected. Chilled should be slightly below room temperature not slightly above freezing. Actually, I could go on about 4C being the triple point of water and note that my beer [really] could have been frozen at that temperature but I suspect that may be too sublime a comment. The tables couldn't have aesthetically supported the necessary plate of glass to cover the menu and didn't even have a soiled tablecloth. One point in its favour, though, was the tinny Bhangra emerging from the speakers. The loos did have the vestiges of fine Birmingham sense as they were lost at the back through a door indistinguishable from the kitchen and were too small. They did squeeze two urinals into the space for one which left me wondering what happened if both were in use. Do you face each other, peeing at 90 degrees [to one another]? Or do you face the same way in parallel and hope that the one doesn't hit the other's shirt? Topped off with a marvellous piece of roughly bent pipework descending [to the urinal] from a hastily made hole in the roof, mucked up not one but twice, once for each urinal.
We polished off our curries which is a first which could lead me on to my Poppadom Theory of Curry Incompletion. But it won't.
Copyright 2002 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.