Road Trip- Day 1

After 3 months in Napier it was time to leave, mostly because we were bored with the town, we both loathed the idiot tourists and we didn't want to work anymore. So we quit our jobs, again, and held a departure party at the house. 26 A Seapoint was rocking (mildly humming) with the friends we met in town.

As the sun set we said our goodbyes packed our stuff and went to bed. This morning we arose, completed our list (which was longer than the Treaty of Waitangi) and got the hell outta town...ROADTRIP!!!

The next month will see us and our motorized donkey (PY) hitting the open roads of the South Island. We have until March 30th to see the rest of NZ.

First destination: Wellington at the southern tip of the North Island.

Day 1 – Sunny 27 C

Left Napier heading south at approximately 11:00 A.M. After 10 minutes on the road we stopped in Hastings (KM Marker 18) for lunch.

Next stop was Woodville, NZ at (KM Marker 127). It was here that Andi relinquished the car keys to me after giving me a number of frights with her behind the wheel. She still does not stay completely in the middle of the lane, scaring the hell outta me when the car is to too far left. My current confidence rating in her driving is 85%⇩. Woodville is also the proverbial fork in the road. From here it is either west to Palmerston North or south to Mangatainoka. The choice was easy.

(KM Marker 166) Mangatainoka, NZ home of the Tui Brewery. We stopped in for memorabilia and a tour. I bought stickers and Andi got drunk. We met some other Canadians as well, but they were quickly on there way when I started to remind them of how poorly the Wancouver Cannots were doing. The tower pictured below was built way back by some idiots. As the story goes they built the thing and then removed all seven floors of scaffolding failing to remember to install a lift or stairs. So there they stood looking up at there masterpiece with no way to access anything above level 2. I applauded their smarts.







(KM Marker 194) Eketahuna, NZ. Giant roadside Kiwi pictured below.



It was here that my dreams of being an Olympic sprinter were killed. I set the camera self-timer for 10 seconds and had approximately 50 m to run. I obviously didn't make it. Somewhere in Jamaica, Usain Bolt is laughing hysterically.

(KM Marker 200) Mt. Bruce, NZ.

We then started playing the Opossum game. In oder to play the game you set a destination, then choose the number of dead Opossums you anticipate seeing between your starting point and end destination. A dead Opossum must be at least 68% complete in order to count as a dead Opossum. All contestants must agree that the dead Opossum is a legal one in order to count. I choose 4 and Andi choose 6. The final count was 5 between Mt. Bruce and Wellington, our final stop for the day at KM Marker 345. Nobody wins the dead Opossum game today.