New Zealand Part 2 : June 25 - July 14

Wellington : Tuesday, July 4, 2006

Our ferry sailing was scheduled for 1:15 today, and we had to check in by 12:00. We had reservations but given that this was the first week of a two week school break we were afraid the sailings might be a bit busy. The drive from Christchurch to Picton was supposed to take 4.5 hours. Snow and sleet were in the forecast however so we heeded all of the advice we had received and left shortly before 7:00 am. We figured this would give us lots of time in case drive times were bad.

The road conditions were atrocious and Brian did the first 2 hours in almost complete darkness and heavy rain. Despite the conditions however he made excellent time on the roads. The rest of the family ended up taking gravol before we left and were all asleep. Brian did most of the drive by himself, with everybody waking up with only 30 minutes to go in the drive. Figures!

We pulled into Picton around 10:00. Brian had done the drive in slightly under 4 hours. As a result, we were early, very early. Brian’s take on it however was that we were late; as we had just missed the 10:00 am sailing. We ended up sitting around for several hours in an empty parking lot waiting for our sailing. The traffic turned out to be exceptionally light; so much for the theory that there would be lots of people traveling because it was school holidays.

They say that when the weather is fine, the inter-island ferry is one of the most spectacular trips in the world. When the weather is foul, it can be one of the worst experiences. What they don’t tell you is that the ratio is about 10 bad trips to one good one. We got a bad one for the second time in a row.

We left right on time and the trip through the northern sounds was beautiful despite the rain. Once we hit the “less than optimal” conditions in the straight, things changed radically. We were in a full blown gale, with 4-5 meter rollers. The outside decks were closed off and everybody held on. The waves were crashing over the bows. The weather significantly slowed down the progress and it took an additional 30 minutes to cross the straits (normally it takes about an hour). At one point as we began to turn around the headland into Wellington harbour, we got hit with a big one. The boat tipped so severely, that everybody on a non-bolted chair ended up on the far side of the cabin. Everything fell over. In the galley, the fridges tipped, dumping the pops etc. The footstools and the tables in the lounges all toppled etc. Quite a ride! In order to dock, we had to have a tug boat push us around and into the berth. The wind was very, very high.

At any rate we made it back into the hotel, which is only 5 minutes drive away from the ferry terminal. With the South Island behind us, we turn our sights north to the Hawke’s Bay district. Hopefully the weather clears a bit so we can catch some of the Lord of the Rings sites along the way. Till Tomorrow!

Wednesday, July 5, 2006: Napier, New Zealand

Our hopes of a dry day were dashed. It was wetter than wet outside with the rain coming down in torrents. We took a glance at the paper as we had our complimentary continental breakfast. We discovered that we were on the last ferry across the straits. The waves were now up to 7 meters, with 100 knot winds. We decided it was time to get out of Dodge (yet again!).

Our plans called for us heading 4.5 hours up the east coast to the city of Napier. We were only on the road for 5 minutes when we hit our first problem. Traffic along highway 2 was at a dead stop. Turning on the radio for the first time, we became aware of how bad the situation really was. Highway 2 had seen a large rock fall (or landslip as the Kiwis called it) and the police were presently trying to route northbound traffic onto the southbound lanes. We opted for a 25 km detour which probably saved us a great deal of time and aggravation.

According to the radio the situation was worsening every minute. The roads north were already under water in places and the police were watching them to decide if they needed to shut them down. With all the rain, our search for the Lord of the Rings sites had to be postponed! We headed up a steep mountain pass ( Upper Hutt Valley) and the water falls were pouring over the road. There were also several small rock falls that we managed to drive around. It wasn’t until we came down the other side into the town of Masterton that things really got interesting. The ground here was much flatter and the water was pooling over the roads and the streams were overflowing the banks. At places the water was above the bottom of the car doors. Eventually we managed to get through the worst of it. While it continued to pour, the road conditions were gradually getting better as we headed north. Debbie felt sorry for the residents of the area whose homes had water up to their foundations.

After 4.5 hours the rain finally stopped and we made it to Napier. We rented a small 2 bedroom place in a motor lodge just north of town. It was a funky kind of place with unusual roof angles and wall decorations. The roof was made of aluminum and Brian commented that it would be nice and dry when it rained. More on this later…….

The town of Napier was hit by a huge earthquake in 1931, wiping out most of the town. The city was almost completely rebuilt during the 30’s and today is one of the most impressive examples of art deco architecture in the world. We took advantage of the break in the weather and managed to get in a great walk through the town center. It was like we had traveled back in time some 70 years! As it began to get dark, the neon signs came on. What a show!

We also managed to find a used book store which was great news. We had been hauling around a large grocery bag full of books that we were looking to trade in. We were in luck as we managed to find some new ones we could trade for. Much to the kids delight we also managed to locate another “Hell’s Pizza”. That combined with some salad we picked up at a grocery store made for a great dinner. Once we got back to the hotel, the storm we had managed to outrun during our drive north managed to catch up with us. It wasn’t until it really started pouring that we realized the downside of the aluminum roof! It was so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think. And this went on all night long!

Thursday, July 6, 2006: Auckland, New Zealand  

We woke up with red eyes. The noise from the roof made it pretty hard to sleep most of the night. This also meant that it had been raining hard for the last 12 hours. Our original plan had been to head to the coastal town of Tauranga. Given the weather and our concerns over road closures we decided we had to change plans.

We decided we would bypass Tauranga and head back up to Auckland. If it was going to pour rain we might as well be driving. Our new routing took us back through the town of Lake Taupo where we stopped to check emails and found that some of the hotels we had tried to secure were full due to the school holidays. Next up was Rotorua. The kids were getting a huge kick out of visiting places we had already been. As odd as it is, they have gone pretty much a whole year without backtracking. Seeing someplace familiar was the next best thing to going home as far as they were concerned.

As far as Deb and Brian were concerned the fact that hotels were filling up was not a good thing. As we stopped off for lunch in Rotorua, Brian dashed into the information center and got onto the internet. After some effort, he managed to get a room in the Hyatt in downtown Auckland. Having secured a hotel for the night, the next 3 hours of driving were much less stressful. Traffic however was a different thing. We ended up in a couple of traffic jams coming into the city. Eventually however we made it into town and got to the hotel. We were really pleased to find that we had been upgraded (complimentary) to their premier level. This meant free breakfast, a suite and free drinks! Yeah!!!

Leaving Brennan in the room to finish off some more math homework, the three of us headed out to check out some last minute shopping. Brian was happy in that we managed to avoid any purchases. We found a small hole in the wall place (Continental Noodle House) for dinner. It was like we were back in China! We were the only ones in the place speaking English again. On the way back to the hotel, we picked up some donairs for Brennan. After enjoying our FREE drinks, we settled down to a night of internet and movies. Hopefully we will finally get some dry weather soon. We are starting to prune!  ( NEXT PAGE )