"The weather stabbed me in the face"

We had considered driving to see Mount Taranaki today, but it was wet and cloudy when we got out of the hostel so we decided against it. Instead we headed into Wanganui to see about booking a kayaking session for when we got to Taupo.

That done, we headed off for Tongariro National Park.

Also known as Mordor.

It rained. A lot. There were also a lot of sheep and a random dog which wandered across the road. The view along the road was pretty good though.

Having dumped the bags at the hostel we decided to brave the weather and head into the national park itself. I should probably point out at this point that there's a whole bunch of Lord of the Rings filming locations in Tongariro National Park, including Mordor. And Mount Doom. Oh yeah.

So anyway, we parked at Whakapapa village and headed off on a walk to Taranaki Falls. Still raining heavily, so we couldn't see any of the mountains.

Fortunately, the sun came out briefly when we actually reached the Falls and we grabbed some silly photos.

Here is the photo of Amy trying to bite Claire's finger off.

Heading back towards the village, we thought we'd have the muffins we'd brought along with us. And of course moments later it started raining ice. In Amy's words, Mother Nature had acquired a knife. It was painful. Seriously painful. Frozen faces, frozen fingers, frozen legs.

We stumped back to the car, making a brief detour to the visitor centre where me and Claire dripped all over the floor. Nice hot showers waited at the hostel and then we spent the evening avoiding the school group which were the only other people in the hostel. We decided we needed some music so I nipped outside to get the speakers from the car.

I had thought it was raining. It wasn't. It was snowing. Ack.

Tomorrow, to Taupo.

Basement Cat

We began our day in Wellington with a wander along the bay which was windy to put it mildly. The news later told us it had been gusting at 100kmh during the day which would explain why sometimes we couldn't actually walk.

Bags were dumped in the car and then we headed for Te Papa Tongarewa, which is the national museum of New Zealand. We'd expected just to spend the morning there but it was so big and so awesome we actually spent the whole day wandering round it.

There was an amazing section about Maori history and culture, including some awesome musical instruments and the history of the haka used by the All Blacks. There was also a bit about more recent migrants to New Zealand. Included in a video in this section was a clip about someone from Laceby and then some bits of Grimsby and Cleethorpes, including Ernie Beckett's fish and chips. Think I got some funny looks from the school group behind us when I started giggling about that. Go all the way to New Zealand and find pictures of home. According to the video, fish and chips was introduced to NZ by people from Grimsby. Not sure how true that is, but it made us smile.

We didn't finish at the museum till late in the afternoon. Headed over to Weta Workshop meaning to have epic geekery about Lord of the Rings but couldn't find anywhere to park. This was horribly disappointing, but given everything else we managed to do, it's not so bad.

Weta bypassed, we headed out of Wellington, stopping briefly at a little suburb called Whitby on the way (see this post for reason). We only stopped for a couple of minutes because it was stupidly windy and more than a bit cold and wet.

The drive up to Wanganui was uneventful. Dark, wet, windy, but uneventful. Nice comfy hostel at the end of it though. Hurray. There was also a cat called Candy who attached itself to people and tried to sneak into the bedroom when you weren't looking. We decided it was Basement Cat. Just got to find Ceiling Cat now.

"It was fine till I fell out the boat"

Motueka hasn't got a lot going for it, but the hostel was nice. We started off with a drive to Kaiteriteri, 20 minutes up the road. The sat-nav, we have discovered, really can't pronounce Maori place names. It is hilarious.

We claimed part of the beach at Kaiteriteri for New Grimsby, complete with flag. We're that cool.

We were actually in Kaiteriteri for kayaking. The last time I went kayaking, which was getting on for 15 years ago, I rammed myself repeatedly back onto the beach and had to be towed off by the instructor. We hoped this was going to be better.

Sophie, our guide, was brilliant. Amy ended up in the kayak with her while Claire and I went in the other. Which was fine until we discovered that the steering pedals weren't quite in the right place and we couldn't really turn properly. Claire also couldn't see past my head so my yelling "there's a rock, TURN!" wasn't helpful.

Anyways, it turned into Amy and the guide paddling serenely along and me and Claire paddling along in a desperate zig-zag behind them. And then the wind started to get up. Paddle harder!

A couple of hours later, having managed to paddle as far as Split Apple Rock as planned, we headed back to the beach. Everyone had acquired aches and pains of some description - blisters on thumbs comes to mind. Landing was fine, managed to paddle onto the beach. And then I stood up to get out of the boat. And a bloody big wave hit the back of the boat. Boat wobbled, I lost my balance and then I was on my arse in the sea. Sodden. Just next to that little boat ramp there:

As I'd got up, Claire in the back had started to take off her spray skirt, so of course when the wave came, she also got soaked. So there's the two of us, soaked and cold and Amy standing on the beach having hysterics. We sent her to get the car while we squelched to the nearest loos. Ugh. Other than that, kayaking was great.

Back in nice dry clothes, we raided the tiny shop for hot chocolate and headed off on the afternoon drive to Picton.

Stopped off at Pelorus Bridge on the way back. Sadly, there were no dwarves, hobbits or lovely lake-men. There was however this sign, which made us giggle.

Then we took a minor detour and went down the Queen Charlotte Drive from Havelock into Picton along the edge of the Marlborough Sounds. Such a beautiful drive, although Claire did have to take over the driving at one point because sitting in the back round all the twists and turns was making her ill.

The ferry was uneventful save for Claire's expected seasickness.

Wellington was windy. Very very windy. Lugging bags back from the car in that was not fun. Also, the hostel was very much an old Travelodge type place that'd been converted. Which meant an en suite bathroom. YAY!