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netGallery > Jon and Sarah > World_Tour_2006 > New Zealand > Taupo and Wellington

Taupo and Wellington

New Zealand

March 2007

TAUPO AND WELLINGTON

Further south we hit Taupo and visited a nice little HoneyBee farm. You could sample and buy pretty much anything food or health product that contained honey. Honey with apple, Honey wine, Honey shampoo you name it. It also had a cool network of beehives that linked in to clear tubes inside the shop. This gave you an excellent view of them in their nests busying about, whilst you just hoped it didn’t crack with you in the vaccinity.

A quick look at a rather small but very fast waterfall and then it was on to Moon valley. Moon valley was a large area of steaming terrain. More mud pools and boiling water fountains, it was very cool to see. I’ve not been to the moon but I can imagine it would look a little like this place if it were steaming and full of tourists.

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The weather was turning bad and with not much more to see in this region we called up our friend Kate, who we met in Mexico, and shot down to see her in Wellington. She kindly let us park our camper on her driveway and stay for two nights. She lives down a very quiet coastal road, just metres from the sea.

We had dinner in a pub in town, where I feasted on beer and Lamb Shank. Once back at Kates we played some Speed Scrabble at which I’m glad to say I won three games. It’s a great version of the slower game and I know mine and Sarah’s mum would love to give it a try. We’ll teach ya!

It was great to catch up with Kate and she took Sarah on a whirlwind tour of Wellington, including the superb museum, whilst I cracked on with some work. Thanks once again for a great time Kate. The two days flew by and soon we were aboard the ferry, crossing the cook straight, heading for the South Island, where we were promised beautiful Lord of The Rings landscapes……

So after having already travelled about two thousand kilometeres, we really liked life in the camper. Free to go where we want, when we want, do what we want and cook what we want. After living life around hostels, shared bathrooms and rigid public transport routes, this was freedom. To be able to pull up at any picnic spot or seaside view and knock up a cheese and pickle sandwich and cup of tea… sublime. The only part that was starting to become mundane was the building and breaking down of the bed each day. It only took five minutes but was hard work and made me feel a little like some spider who spent all night building the perfect web, only to have some kid walk through it every morning…. I’ll never ruin a spiders web again!