25-03-07 - cont....
We left the wine groves of Hawkes Bay behind and headed south across the south eastern prairie. This part of North Island is very dry and has sparse vegetation, it's apparent this country has wildly differing climate and vegetation zones! For a couple of hours we passed through the flat dry pasture land, this area is clearly all about the farming. The small towns we passed were clearly built to serve the farming community, and appear to host a very religious community, with "God" promo boards scattered around the fields and towns. The animals farmed appear to be sheep (of course, it's NZ!), cattle and deer, with the odd Lhama and Alpaca thrown in! Plenty of land for sale as well.....
The towns themselves are appearing to follow a familiar theme, the outskirts consist of the industrial units and car dealerships, then you get the low rise wooden boarded homes in the suburbs. The town centres usually consist a single street with retail outlets down the side and a wide grassed area in the middle of the carriageways. I've yet to see a car dealership out of town, and second hand delares out number manufacturer franchises 2 or 3 to 1. Thinking back to Rotorua there were literally dozens of second hand dealers all lined up down one street. I get the feeling people don't buy and sell privately, they must prefer to use the dealers! Almost all the cars on the road are Japanese in origin and quite old, I guess the temperate weather stops them rusting!
Back to the trip.., we stopped at Mount Bruce conservation centre on the way down to stretch our legs and check out some of the animals and fauna they had there. Another chance to see a Kiwi bird ;o)
Suitably refreshed at Mt Bruce we set off for the final leg into Wellington. Again the scenery getting more vegetated and dramatic, with a fun drive up and over a high pass.
The nearer we got to Wellington the more it felt like England. The road turned into a dual carriageway, the traffic started to speed up and the traffic got heavier. Up until then all the locals seemed to stick religiously to 100Km/Hr, I don't know what the fine for speeding round here is, but it must be steep as they all seemed to be programmed from birth not to exceed the limit! That said, it's probably all this fantastic scenery they've got to look at that helps to calm them down ;o)
We found our next stop ok, the Victoria Court Motor Lodge and within 5 minutes we were unpacked, settled in and kettle on! We're getting the hang of living out of a suitcase now.... The accomodation is a bit more basic, I'd probably rate it as a 3 star, but it's , clean, functional and more importantly perfectly located just 5 minutes walk from central Wellington.
We've just had a quick bite to eat at an Italian restaurant and are heading off to bed. What is it with the Italian restaurants over here, none of them seem to do Pizza! Bye for now......
The towns themselves are appearing to follow a familiar theme, the outskirts consist of the industrial units and car dealerships, then you get the low rise wooden boarded homes in the suburbs. The town centres usually consist a single street with retail outlets down the side and a wide grassed area in the middle of the carriageways. I've yet to see a car dealership out of town, and second hand delares out number manufacturer franchises 2 or 3 to 1. Thinking back to Rotorua there were literally dozens of second hand dealers all lined up down one street. I get the feeling people don't buy and sell privately, they must prefer to use the dealers! Almost all the cars on the road are Japanese in origin and quite old, I guess the temperate weather stops them rusting!
Back to the trip.., we stopped at Mount Bruce conservation centre on the way down to stretch our legs and check out some of the animals and fauna they had there. Another chance to see a Kiwi bird ;o)
Suitably refreshed at Mt Bruce we set off for the final leg into Wellington. Again the scenery getting more vegetated and dramatic, with a fun drive up and over a high pass.
The nearer we got to Wellington the more it felt like England. The road turned into a dual carriageway, the traffic started to speed up and the traffic got heavier. Up until then all the locals seemed to stick religiously to 100Km/Hr, I don't know what the fine for speeding round here is, but it must be steep as they all seemed to be programmed from birth not to exceed the limit! That said, it's probably all this fantastic scenery they've got to look at that helps to calm them down ;o)
We found our next stop ok, the Victoria Court Motor Lodge and within 5 minutes we were unpacked, settled in and kettle on! We're getting the hang of living out of a suitcase now.... The accomodation is a bit more basic, I'd probably rate it as a 3 star, but it's , clean, functional and more importantly perfectly located just 5 minutes walk from central Wellington.
We've just had a quick bite to eat at an Italian restaurant and are heading off to bed. What is it with the Italian restaurants over here, none of them seem to do Pizza! Bye for now......
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