Saturday, January 03, 2009

From the North, to the South, to the East, to the West-ish.

So I spent a night at home in Hamilton, and then the next day I hopped in the car with Suzanne and Bevan (my Sister, and Brother-in-law, who were home from the UK, while they were getting their visas renewed) and headed down to Wellington. On the way we stopped for tea in Palmerston North and caught up with one of their friends.

We carried on, and got to Wellington, I stayed with Beth, a friend from my time in Japan, and her partner Aeneas. Beth & I headed out (back) to the Pub with her workmates, and later on grabbed some pizzas before calling it a night.

The next day, I think we went for a bit of a walk, got some groceries and some DVDs, and then that night some of their friends came and we went to the pub and watched Wellington play Canterbury on the big screen, before we went back to the flat and played Poker (I had to be re-taught, as I had only played it once before).

The following day (Sunday) I got up and went for a walk down to Te Papa (the Museum of NZ) getting some breakfast in Transit. It was OK, but the highlight for me was seeing and being spoken to by Suzy Cato – the former children’s presenter, who is still a fox.

On Monday, Suzanne came and picked me up and we headed Northwards, stopped for brunch at Subway. We had decided that we would go to Castlepoint, on the East coast, Suzanne had been there once before. So we went there, very isolated, but interesting, and plenty of people considering. There is a lighthouse, and a bit of a lagoon, amongst some big rock formations. Suzanne and I then carried on north and spent the night in Napier. The next day we headed further North to Gisborne, as I had only been there once, by plane, and Suzanne had never been there. We had a bit of a look around, and then went to our old friend & neighbour Isaac’s house, where we had dinner, played Scrabble, and stayed the night. The next day we caught up again with Isaac, and his brothers, before heading off, Northwards, to go around the East Cape. It was an interesting journey, we saw Tolega bay, Tokomaru bay, and went to the actual East Cape, although that was most disappointing as it was a 21km drive, and you didn’t end up at the beach, or the lighthouse, or access to either, rather just a dead end with a set of toilets. So I did what any good person would, and used them. So following this, we drove back to the main road, and carried on, to Opotiki, Whakatane, and eventually Papamoa, where we met up again with Bevan and their friend Ray (both who had been snowboarding during our excursion.) The next day, Bevan & Ray went to the Mountain again, and Suzanne & I went to Hamilton, and then Suzanne carried on to Hastings to meet up with Bevan again, and they stayed a few days with his parents. Unfortunately I don’t have any photos to show from this journey as of course my camera had been stolen.

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