Road Trip Day Three

A few people have asked how the road trip ended, so here’s Day Three for the record.

Left Wanganui late morning. When I asked the hotel what time checkout was, the reply was “Any time you want”. Nice.

You can see the Wanganui River as we drive along it,.

Driving along SH1 we tossed a coin to decide between Marton and Bulls. Marton won. So through Marton we went and then a further coin toss had us heading to Fielding. We continue to plough our way through Simon Power’s electorate but then we note we are heading towards Palmerston North. No, no, no we cried but the rules are the rules. However we were saved just on the outskirts of Palmie with a bypass to Ashurst, and tails won it for us. We were just a few hundred metres from the city centre.

Driving eastwards we see the Manawatu Wind Farm. It’s a great sight and I wish we had more of them. God damn NIMBYs.

Then the coin confirms we are heading to SH2, so over the Manawatu Gorge.

Now heading South we come to the hallowed Tui Brewewy in Mangatainoka. The only Tui sign in the country that says “Yeah left”.

Tui also has a mighty big welcome mat.

After passing through Eketahuna we phone up a friend who was born there to hassle him.

And finally we hit the Rimutakas, where visibility was an optional extra. Cliffs, trucks and fog is always such a good combination.

Left Auckland 2 pm Tuesday and got to Wellington 4 pm Thursday. Travelled a but over 1,000 kms on SH1, SH3 and SH2 plus many other roads. A very fun road trip. Plan is to repeat it next year in the South Island.