In the Naki of Time (Part one)

So here at last shall I tell of my first weekend back in New Zealand, the weekend that saw myself and Karen take a long but pleasant drive up to Oakura in the region known as Taranaki. It began on Friday morning and the sun was shining on the adventurers as they drove out of Lower Hutt through the hills to join Highway one at Porirua. A little further up the Highway was stop number 1 at Paekakariki to view the Kapiti coast feat. Kapiti Island to the right and South Island to the left. Hereth follows a photo of the right hand side of the view.

After admiring the view we continued up Highway 1 until we reached the town of Otaki where we stopped for what some call a 'comfort break'. This was an exceptional choice for the first of these stops as the toilet gave instructions on how to go about your business (if you will). You were told after closing the door that you must firstly press the button to lock it and after doing so were then informed you had 10 minutes to complete your dealings. After this the toilet began to play 'What the World needs now is Love sweet Love' which was very jolly and quite unexpected. Whether they'd done research that concluded this was the perfect song to play in such establishments I know not, but it certainly added what the French call a certain I don't know what!

After this excitement we got on the road again and drove to the town of Bulls where we took another CB (as I shall refer to them henceforth). Here for your viewing pleasure is the sign informing the public that these are the toliets in the place of Bulls.

After this we made a stop in Whanganui to get some lunch which we ate in the carpark of New World and then proceeded on up Highway 3 in the direction of the Naki. I think our next stop was Patea for a further CB after which we plodded on once more until we turned off onto Surf Highway (No.45). It was a little further along here that we made a stop at a lovely beach and enjoyed a wee paddle in the Tasman Sea (that's a wee paddle not a wee and a paddle). And here am I bearing my white legs to the world (I got the rip taken out of me for these quite a few times - if anything cries out English it's white pasty legs!).

We eventually arrived in Oakura about 1hr and a half later than planned but rather that than rush and miss out on getting out in the sun and sea.

It was Karen's birthday that day so we ate tea at Matt's house (Karen's partner) joined by their friend Ange (who will appear in the Part 2) and ended up popping round to Al and Jan's house for some drinks later on. To be honest I was still adjusting to the time difference at this point so I wasn't up to much but Karen drank enough for both of us so it was all good : ). And there I shall leave it for this installment. I'm not actually sure anyone who isn't on Facebook is reading this (which could make it kind of pointless) so my posts may be few and far between if this is so.

Toodle pip for now. Kx