And today was a Good Day!!! Sunny, relatively calm wind, warm, beautiful! We drove another curvy oneish lane road to a suburb and figured out the bus system to get into Wellington town centre. We exited the bus at Cuba Street, the epicentre of laidback, hippy gentrification. Tons of upscale thrift stores, coffee bars, dive bars, old architecture (some restored, some not), and the best little fish & chips spot! We walked up, had lunch, and walked back on Cuba Street, then headed to the i-site near the waterfront. We passed the museums (we’ll check those out on a rainy day) and enjoyed people watching along the waterfront.

This restored building copies the colors of the blue sky and white clouds…on a good day!

This statue fronts the Marae of the local iwi (tribe) of Maori. It faces out to Wellington Harbour.

We spotted a ray in the bay! No one else seemed to notice it, or maybe it’s a common occurrence?

An old wooden ship, and a mural of someone of importance?

Wellington is the capitol of New Zealand and has claim to the cultural hub of NZ as well. There are numerous museums, government buildings and shopping districts. Eclectic art is scattered around the city.

This sculpture stands atop the old Central Library, now a museum.

Wellington is built on and around hills similar to San Francisco. We got a very San Francisco vibe here, especially when we boarded the Wellington Cable Car that takes you up the hill to fantastic views.

A model of the cable car in the Cable Car Museum at the top.

Our panoramic view at the top!

We walked back down to the city centre through the Botanic garden. We hopped the bus and found some refreshing beverages (Wellington is also the hub of the NZ craft beer scene!) before we bussed it back to the car and home.

As to the saying “You can’t beat Wellington…on a good day”, it’s due to the weather in the town being mostly windy, cool and cloudy. So on a beautiful day like today Wellingtonians really appreciate it and go outside to enjoy it! It’s also become somewhat of an anthem, check out the YouTube video HERE!

We arrived yesterday afternoon at our new accomodation in Makara, a very rural area close to Wellington at the south tip of the North Island. A very private house surrounded by greenery and garden. No long views here, but lots of light from skylights, huge picture windows and even a solar tube in the 2nd bedroom.

The living room with a huge picture window looking out at ferns, a cedar and kawakawa bushes.

The dining area into the kitchen, another huge picture window looking towards flower gardens.

We decided we needed a day of rest, so we played a new game supplied, Tri-ominoes! Then I baked a late, pseudo Thanksgiving dinner. Stuffed chicken, pumpkin-apple-onion casserole and a salad!

It was Delicious!

We started out this morning in a drizzle, getting our coffees and gassing up the car. We of course took the scenic route, the curviest road, towards Whanganui. From the mountains to the sea, the Tasman Sea! We know nothing about Whanganui, but the signs as we approached said it is part of the Unesco Creative Cities Network. We stopped in town and took a stroll from the riverfront up to the Regional Museum back down along Victoria Avenue to see the sights.

Unfortunately the Museum is undergoing renovations and was closed, encased in a plastic envelope!

We turned around and went down to the main thoroughfare where they are putting up the holiday decorations!

Insert pre-decorated evergreen branch C into trunk slot Z. It is a puzzle of a Christmas Tree!

On Victoria Avenue there are lots of buildings from the late 1800’s to the Art Deco era of the 1920’s and 30’s. The Watt Fountain is a mainstay, although it has been moved around town many times.

The fountain now sits at it’s original location (installed originally  in 1881, returned to this spot in 1993).

We stopped in at the local i-site (the visitor center) and got information about the tower we saw across the river. It is a war memorial erected on Durie Hill in 1925 to commemorate the local men who died in WWI. There is a unique way to get there though. There is a tunnel to an elevator that takes you up the hill to the base of the tower! The Durie Hill Memorial Tower and Elevator.

The walkway to the tunnel is lined with Maori carved totems.

It’s quite a tunnel to the elevator!

We exited the elevator and walked the short distance to the tower and climbed the 176 steps to the top!

The view looking back down to the orange building with the spiral staircase where you exit the elevator, the Whanganui River and the bridge over the river on Victoria Avenue.

We finished our tour just in time. At the top of the tower the wind was roaring and rain started falling. We elected to walk down the hill rather than take the elevator down because a school group arrived that were taking the elevator. We had a leisurely walk down the many stairs and we headed out of town, the rain followed soon after!

We got up before the crack of dawn to see the full moon setting over the Bay of Plenty, behind Mt. Maunganui. Our last morning in the Bay View Bach.

The lights on the horizon to the right of the moon are ships either leaving or entering the Port of Tauranga.

Yesterday, after our epic hike and packing and cleaning the bach, we went out for a few beers and a light dinner with some folks we had met a week ago. We had a wonderful time talking about our adventures and hearing about their life in Te Puke. Mark, the patriarch, is a kiwi farmer and he offered us a quick tour of his orchard the next morning. So we packed the car up and left at 7:15am to meet him at his orchard a 10 minute drive away. We had a great visit with him and learned about the NZ kiwifruit (formerly the Chinese gooseberry).

Baby kiwifruit. We don’t get the best of the crop in the US! The kiwifruit here in the local stores are twice as big!

After saying our goodbyes we continued on towards a hike we planned on our way south. Our destination was the Maramataha Bridge on the Timber Trail, a hiking & biking trail through the Pureroa Forest Park.

The longest and highest suspension bridge on the Timber Trail!

It crosses the Maramataha River, home to the whio or blue duck, a critically endangered NZ native bird. The bridge allows for bikers and hikers to pass over the river without disturbing the critical habitat of the ducks.

After our almost 2 hour walk through the regenerating forest we continued towards our night’s stay in Ohakune. Our friends in the pub last night said that it’s a great little ski town. I was thinking maybe bunny hills, I was not prepared for a huge snow capped active volcano!

Our first view of Mt. Ruapehu, one of NZ’s most active volcanos!

As we got closer the clouds dissipated and we had a clear view!

The quaint town of Ohakune reminded us of a smaller version of Bend. A skiable volcano nearby, a river running through it, the Mangawhero River, and a newspaper named The Bulletin!

One of the businesses that caters to the winter visitors!

Ohakune has wound down it’s ski season and the summer traffic has not yet begun. We had a leisurely stroll around town during shoulder season, something Bend no longer has!

We had a beautiful day and headed out for a hike before we got down to business packing to move. We decided to head to the road to Newdick’s Beach, a private road we thought was closed but learned that for a small fee we could drive or hike there. Since it’s walking distance we decided to hike! After paying our $2 NZ to walk the private road, it was a 15 minute stroll down a lane until we saw the water, and a rope swing!

Of course if there’s a swing, I must swing!

To the right was a sandy beach that headed towards the Holiday Park opposite Pukahina Beach.We looked to the left, towards the cobble beach and Okurei Point.

What’s around the point? We decided to explore.

Beautiful expansive vistas out to sea, and tiny masterpieces of nature on shore.

We made it around the point, carefully stepping across the cobble beach.

The rounded tip of Okurei Point.

On the other side of the point we decided we might as well hike all the way to Maketu beach, we could see it in the distance, but how many obstacles would be in our way?

As we hiked, carefully watching our steps over rocks and trees, we looked up to see a sea lion climbing up on a rock close to shore. It was totally oblivious to us! We watched for a little while, then continued on our way.

We could see the beach stretching to the Maketu Beachside Cafe, a welcome sight after our careful trek over the cobbles!

We are very lucky that it was low tide! We saw the marks on the cliff wall that if the tide was up, it would be impassable!

Our route around the point! What an adventure! Over 4 miles round trip from the bach and back.