Palmerston North and Masterton

2015-01-16

We traveled to and spent the night in Palmerston North on our way to an airshow in Masterton.  As we've traveled these past few months I've tried to take note of towns that seem nice places to live.  New Plymouth, Te Kuiti, Kerikeri and Waganui are all on the list.  Palmerston North is now near the top of my list.  It's a beautiful little city, home to Massey University and about an hour north of Wellington.

We had dinner with live music at a little cafe in the old council building.  Afterwards we took the kids to the local pool to blow off some energy.  Our South African hosts at our motel, the Fitzherbert Regency, we great and very helpful.

Quilting contest

Enjoying the music

To swim or not to swim?

Swim!

On Saturday, we hopped in the car and headed down the road to Masterton.  State Highway 3 cuts through the Manawatu Gorge and is a particularly pretty drive.  Train tracks are built on the northern wall of the gorge and the road is on the southern.   Along the ridge above the gorge is a fairly large wind farm.

I stumbled on a NZ transport agency page detailing a slide that blocked the road through the gorge a few years back.  Click here and scroll down to see photos of the slide and repairs.

Windmills

Railroad track opposite the roadway

A view up the gorge

Hobbiton

2015-01-10

When we planned our trip, I was skeptical that we could work everything in that we wanted to do.  Visiting the Hobbiton movie set has always been really high on our list and we were able to pull it
off on the way home from Whitianga.  We stopped for a quick breakfast at a country cafe Laura had read about.  The owners have some donkeys in a paddock to entertain guests and the kids got the chance to feed yesterday's scraps to the donkeys.  I heard an airplane fly over while the kids were petting the donkeys and I looked up in time to see some joker in a Van's RV do an aileron roll over the cafe.  Crazy Kiwis.

An aileron roll?

Feeding the donkeys

Matamata was about two hours from the cafe in the middle of New Zealand race horse country.  The little town of Matamata looked like it could be anywhere in middle Tennessee.  We were excited about the Hobbiton tour and it turned out to be really nice.  James, a pleasant Matamata native, was our tour guide.  Laura and I swallowed hard when told us he was four (4) years old when Lord of the Rings was filmed in Matamata.

The facilities were great and there was plenty of time to walk around and snap photos.  The only drawback was the boys were tired of posing by the end.  We had a great time on our Northland trip and we were able to see a good chunk of the North Island.  I'll end this series of posts with shots of Hobbiton.

James, our tour guide.

Gandalf's Cut

The garden has 5 full-time caretakers

Hobbit holes were built on 3 different scales

Weta Workshop gate clasp

NZ Immigrants

Family shot

Bag End

Ring toss

Pumping some water

Jack on stilts

Having a beverage in the Green Dragon

The Green Dragon Bar

A last look

Mercury Bay

2015-01-09

Our Friday activities included a walk along Buffalo beach and a tour boat ride in Mercury Bay. 

Buffalo Beach

Marching practice

Captain Cook named the bay after the planet since one of the objectives of his voyage was to observe a transit of Mercury.   The tour boat ride was pleasant and the kids enjoyed it.  We considered kayaking and we were glad we changed our mind after observing the sea conditions from the boat.  It was really windy with about 1m swells.  We wouldn't have seen very much from the kayak and our history with small boats in New Zealand isn't that great.  Jack and I braved the cool water for a bit of snorkeling off the boat.  The water was crystal clear and we had fun, but it took a bit to warm up
afterwards.

Shakespeare Point the the background

Cathedral Cove

Orua Cave

A little chilly, but really clear

Warming up

The boat captain recommended a restaurant in Whitianga and after we cleaned up from the ride we went out to find El Camino.  We spent about fifteen minutes driving around Whitianga looking for the place when we spotted the captain gassing his boat at the end of the day. He pointed us in the right direction and we had a nice Italian dinner at Al Camino.  After dinner, we goofed around the condo and watched Dr. No, a particularly bad James Bond film.

Dinner at Al Camino, Whitianga