Clowning Around NZ & Australia: Two Return to the Naki.

Tuesday 21st March

Ok now Christine is back on board

We motored out to Eastbourne for lunch, I even had a swim in the sea!

We went through Upper Hutt and across to State Highway 1

Such a fab day we stopped to explore Pukerua Bay.

The view from the top was magnificent. I spotted a good road at the bottom

which led to a sweet little secluded park up.

This fabulous sculpture looks over to Kapiti Island

and there is a nice rugged walk towards towards the west.

The main road in Foxton is getting some re-furbishments and we stopped to view the town. The windmill was the dream of two Dutch immigrants, Jan Langen and Cor Slobbe. Approximately $1,000,000 was donated from the community to build the windmill and was officially opened in 2003.

We parked up at Waiinu, which is on the coast and south of Whanganui.

The walk along the black sand beach revealed some lovely photos.

The patterns in the foam along the beach caught my eye.

Then the bubbles,

then these bubbles.

As we headed north towards New Plymouth at Patea I spotted this sign.

"The Teddy Bear No Seabed Mining Protest" is rather unique!

The next stop was Opunaki, the birthplace of the legendary Peter Snell in 1938.

A sweet little town so close to the sea on the Surf Highway.
He ran so far he now lives in America

This is the view of Mt Egmont from Cape Egmont.

And the Lighthouse, still shining at night tho now with a much smaller LED bulb.

We head for the city life in New Plymouth and visit the Len Lye exhibition

at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery. Certainly a very contemporary building.

Another case of its "All done with Mirrors"

Len's kinetic moving sculptures are most impressive, even with sounds.

Yes a man ahead of his time.

His individual motto for life was "Individual Happiness Now",

something I try to live up to every day myself.

When you take photos of this sort of thing,

what you see is not what you get!

We stopped in Stratford for the night which had some of the cheapest fish and chips so far in our travels. In the Chinese takeaway in Bridge Street I ordered, then found they don't take plastic so I walked back to the bus to get some cash. When I returned, I spent a couple of minutes juggling in the shop expecting to order and pay, but she came out with my order already done. Really cheap too... three fish, a spring roll and one scoop of chips all came to $9.50

Gladdens a Scotsman heart that does!

We spent a rainy Saturday afternoon in Palmeston North, parked in the Square, rode my unicycle and went to the Digital Rembrant Exhibition at Te Manawa.

Sunday we checked out the local Gardens and a bike ride along the Esplanade and River.

We headed out to the West to park up on the South side of the Rangatikei River,

another nice secluded spot across from Scotts Ferry.

High tide against the river made the water around us rise quickly, but we were never in danger of getting cut off.

Heading South now for the ferry back to the South Island

but not before spending time in the Paraparaumu/Raumati areas.

I biked along the Kapiti bike trail where I ended up at Pekapeka Road in super quick time

as I had a huge back wind pushing me North!

Stopped in Porirua, then checked out Titahi Bay

We headed out towards Seatown and Karaka Bay.

A photo says it all, it's blokes like this that give us a bad name.

This is at Plimmerton's Ngatitoa Park, a sweet spot well used and quiet

apart from sports teams and trains commuting, which I like anyway!

This is out at Owhiro Bay, a super spot on a wild wet windy day. I biked out on the 4wheel track as a far as I could go, returning to the carpark and intending to head out to civilisation to go out for a meal on our last night in the North Island. I had to change a flat rear tyre on the bus in the cold and wet with darkness looming...all character building, and all good fun!