The last couple of days we’ve been travelling from New Plymouth to Blenheim. We drove right around the coast, around Mt Egmont which was very scenic and cool. We could see both the ocean and the mountain for most of the trip. We went out to the Cape Egmont lighthouse and had some lunch, it was so amazing to see all of the rocks from Mt Egmont’s eruption all the way over there – over 8kms away from the mountain. We then went over to Palmerston North for Dre to take another trip down memory lane to find his old house and school. It was also a welcome break for our car which decided to almost overheat – noooooo! We got some radiator fix-it stuff though and now it’s running fine.
We then went on to a little town called Mana, near Wellington, for the night. We were lucky enough to get a hotel room which flooded – we woke up at 4.30 to the sound of running water and got up and the entire carpet was soaked – lucky we got up and also lucky we didn’t have any of our stuff on the floor. Turns out it was a burst water pipe and so at 4.30am we got moved to another hotel room…. oh well it’s all fun and games. We scored a mean cooked breakfast for our troubles so it’s not all bad.
Yesterday we came across to the South Island on the Interislander Ferry. It was awesome. Karen’s only memory of the Interislander is extremely rough seas and a horrible trip, but thankfully this crossing was picture perfect, a textbook crossing. We stood outside on the boat for an hour or so when coming into the Queen Charlotte Sounds and it was really beautiful.
It was a beautiful day to stand outside and watch the ocean pass by. Then yesterday afternoon we went around some of the Marlborough Vineyards, went to a handmade chocolate place and got some cheeses, it was a good afternoon and then stayed in Blenheim. To see our photos of Taranaki, The Interislander Ferry crossing and Blenheim vineyards click here. Today we are going to Kaikoura and then Hanmer Springs for a soak in the thermal waters.