Apr 23rd: Cable Cars and Missing Stars

Day 20 (Day 16 in New Zealand)

First thing this morning we walked down to Wellington harbour for a stroll along the waterfront. After last night’s rain, the sunshine was most welcome. The area was very pleasant, not too busy and, like the rest of NZ, in a very good state of repair. 

Mermaids are real!

Solace In The Wind
 (known locally as “The Naked Man” statue)

A crane on a shed on a bungalow on a boat
(An attempt at a vertical pano - didn’t really work)

You tell me!

We ended up in the city centre so we took the famous red cable car to the top of the hill, an area known as “Kelburn”. By now the sun was really out and the views fantastic. After coffee at the top we looked around the cable car museum - free! - and learned that it was mostly built by convicts, on time and on budget. HS2 are you listening?

Before setting off on the 4 hour drive to our next destination (Horopito) we bought a couple of sandwiches to eat on the way somewhere. We eventually detoured a few kilometres to Waikanae Beach and ate lunch looking out at Kapiti Island Marine Reserve. Nice sandy beach which was almost deserted except for a very barky dog whose owner wasn’t throwing its stick quickly enough.

After a tea break stop and a fuel refill (4th one in 2 weeks) we reached our destination for the next two nights by 5:30pm. An annex to a private home in the middle of nowhere. Very nice! It’s actually in the foothills of an ACTIVE volcano, Mount Ruapehu. No eruptions since 2007. Fingers crossed, eh?

After catching up with some washing we headed back the way we came for a delicious Italian in Ohakune marred only by my bank card being declined! I used another and then had it unblocked by talking via text to a robot in England for 45 mins. Clever technology eh! And, yes, I know they are protecting me from fraud - and I’m grateful they do - but a bit scary at the time with 5 weeks still to go.

Driving back to our B&B we realised we had our first cloudless night sky since arriving in New Zealand and were a long way from human light pollution. But Murphy’s law says tonight was almost a full moon. Lots of stars to be seen but not the trillions we were hoping for.