Day 8 - Travel To Wellington

Day 8 (Tuesday 7th Sept)


Trifle late up this morning, 07.10, I will need to be up and about much earlier tomorrow as latest book-in time for the ferry is 07.25. However, after shower and breakfast spent some time updating the draft blog before setting off on the road to Wellington at 09.30. Taking a couple of shots of the camp site on the way out.

JB Leaving the Waipawa Camp Site

Leaving Rivers Edge Holiday Park

Following Route 2 all the way today but made my first small diversion to a place called Norsewood where the Scandinavian influence is still to be seen. It has a woollen mill still producing a range of knitted goods. See photos:

Norsewood Johannas World

Norsewood model site

Leaving Norsewood, I continued through Dannevirke, another town where the Scandinavian history is strong, turned left at Woodville until I reached Pahiatua where I came across an old aircraft being utilised as a slide in a children’s playground.

Who can tell me the Aircraft Type?

I feel sure that someone will be able to enlighten me to the aircraft type. Continued on the way to Masterton, stopping off for a quick photo shoot along the road.

View on the road to Masterton

View on the road to Masterton

Masterton at about 12.10, refuelled, got on a public phone and booked into the Capital Gateway Motor Inn and got directions as to how to get there.

Masterton Main Street

Travelled a bit further down the road and stopped off for a spot of lunch at Greytown which was the terminus for an early railway. See photos

Original Site Of Railway Terminus - Greytown

Railway Terminus History

Leaving Greytown I soon started climbing into the Rimutaka range which has to be crossed to get to Wellington. This led to some more very testing driving with speeds dropping on occasion to 25 kph. However, the views from the summit, the sun having emerged, were really worth the slog up the hill. See photos

View over the Rimutaka Range North East of Wellington

View over the Rimutaka Range North East of Wellington

JB in the Rimutaka Range

The freewheeling ride down the other side of the range was not as testing and I soon found myself passing through Upper Hut, Lower Hut and fairly quickly into the outskirts of Wellington, turned off onto Route 1 and quickly found the Capital Gateway Campervan Park. This was a much more up-market site but included Internet access for the duration of my stay. Van soon set up and a batch of washing started before having a quick look around. See photos:

Capital Gateway Caravan Park- My Van Front Left

Entrance to the Caravan Park

Spent the evening emailing and Blogging before having a couple of beers (Tui) and treating myself to a bar snack of “fish bites and chips”. Retired to the van for an early night at 9.30 since I needed to be up by 05.30 in order to catch the ferry to South Island.

That’s all for today. See you again tomorrow.