Thames to Wanganui

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Saturday 9th December – Last night we ate in Sealeys Restaurant and it was very good. During the meal a siren went up at the local fire station up the road and one of our fellow diners got up and ran out the door. About 30-40 minutes later we heard another siren from the fire engine and he returned to much applause from other diners. It is the third time we have witnessed such happenings. In Paihia one of the barmen in 35 Degrees South, where we were watching the cricket, also went sprinting up the road when the siren sounded. Most places in New Zealand seem to be covered by retained fire-fighters who have other full time jobs.

Today we made our way to Hamilton where we had seen some very heavy rain on a previous visit. It happened again this time but even worse with large hailstones. Thankfully, we were not out in it as we were in the home of Margaret and John Nicholls who had invited us to tea. We had a discussion of whether it was tea or dinner. We had to admit that we called it dinner if it was our main meal of the day although when I was growing up in Cornwall it was tea. Elizabeth has converted me to calling it dinner! It was a very enjoyable evening again as it has been with all those who we have spent time with on this trip. We had a lot of common interests and views, not least sport (John and me) and, in particular, rugby and cricket. We were certainly on the same side when it came to competitions with the Aussies!

Margaret and I “met” on the internet earlier this year and had already discovered that our ancestors were living next door to each other two, maybe even three, times in Devon and Cornwall in the mid to late 1800s. During the evening it emerged that we share a family name from Devon and may also turn out to be related. It really is a small world as this is the second time on this trip that this has occurred. Those who have been following the blog will know that this also cropped up for Elizabeth in Brisbane.

Many thanks to Margaret and John for a great evening, for being so hospitable and for a great meal. Unfortunately, we failed to take any photos during the evening but have one of them taken earlier this year with their son and this is shown here.

Sunday 10 December 2006 – We broke our trip to New Plymouth to visit the Waitomo Caves. This was an excellent experience where we were led through the caves showing the formations achieved over many thousands of years, much of which we had seen in other caves. However, what makes this different are the glow worms catching food in the roof of the caves. They create light to lure insects into their traps. This has the effect of creating a glistening effect achieved by thousands of pinprick lights. Each is about the size of a matchstick. We were not permitted to take any pictures but there was one taken as we exited and a much reduced version of this is shown here.

Monday 11 December 2006 – The latest stop is New Plymouth which is dominated by Mount Taranaki, a snow capped dormant volcano, to the east of the city. It can be seen from everywhere around the city and is surrounded by the Egmont National Park. We drove all the way around the mountain and spent some time in the visitors centre which provided an excellent view of the mountain. It is something that constantly draws the eye and we found it fascinating. The city is by the sea on the west coast and to its south is an area referred to as the surf region. We saw a few trying to surf but the seas were not high enough to do it effectively. The weather was glorious and a comfortable 21 degrees. We have been very lucky with the weather on this trip with the rain in Hamilton being the worst by far and that did not last too long.

Tuesday 12 December 2006 – This morning we spent a couple of hours at Puke Ariki, a combined museum, library and visitor centre – the first of its kind in New Zealand. It concentrated, as you would expect, on the history and geology of New Plymouth with some good features on immigration. Most of the early settlers came from Devon and Cornwall which was of particular interest to me as it is where I have my roots – born in Plymouth (the original one) and brought up in Cornwall. After many final glimpses of Mt Taranaki that seem to go on forever, we made our way to Wanganui.

We had visited Wanganui in 1998 on our first trip and liked both our accommodation and the city centre, decked out in flowers, so we were looking forward to our return. We were disappointed on our first day with both the motel; it had gone down over the years, and the city. We decided to look for somewhere to eat in the city centre but found mainly takeaway places, often a sign of a low economy and this seemed to be confirmed in the rest of the main street. We returned to our motel and ate there and it was an excellent meal in a decent restaurant – out of keeping with the décor of the remainder. Our suite was roomy and turned out to be comfortable.

The next day with the sunshine, open shops and people around - although not that many given how close it was to Christmas – it looked much more inviting. We visited Cooks Gardens, where Peter Snell broke the world mile record in 1962. From there we viewed the Ladies room (me only from the outside) which is quite an elegant building as is the opera house. We also visited the small art gallery and all this led us to think that Wanganui had some merit but we would not need to visit it again! In the evening we bought a nice bottle of wine, some very nice Kapiti ice cream and take away pizzas which we had in our suite and much enjoyed.

Thursday 14 December 2006 – This was to be our last significant car journey in the North Island and it was to Wellington, the capital city. Before leaving Wanganui we felt that we should visit Dury Hill which has one of only two elevators built into a hill – the other is in Portugal. It gave us a good view over the city.

We stopped for coffee at Bulls where the locals have delighted in producing as many puns using bull as they can. Just a few are “cure-a- bull” for the medical centre; “bank-a-bull” for the bank: “eat-a-bull” for a café and my favourite, “Consta-a-bull” for the police station! From there it was to Palmerston North which we found to be a pleasant but unremarkable place.