This morning we picked up a very cheap rental car from the local agent’s house in the executive Wellington suburb of Kandallah. It seemed a bit incongruous going there for what is essentially a ‘Rent a Wreck’ and the taxi driver who took us there from the hotel was quite bemused at the idea.
Anyway, this little Toyota Corolla with 142,000 kilometers on the clock drives very well.
We headed along the Motorway past the Hutt Valley up the Rimutaka Hill. We had to cross this mountain range to get to the Wairarapa region. At the summit the wind was strong enough to blow you off your feet and it was very foggy. We could see the clouds scurrying across the road around each of the turns at the top of the mountain.
On reaching the little town of Martinborough, we found a beautiful hotel run y the Peppers Group and without any real level of belabored thinking, we checked in to a spacious room with a king sized bed for the night.
We found a little sandwich bar for lunch and then spent the afternoon exploring the road to Palliser Bay and the lighthouse – the most southerly point on the North Island.
The lighthouse is on a point and it took a climb of 251 steps to reach it. The wind was so strong that it was hard to stand up. I don’t know how good my photos will be as I couldn’t keep the camera very still in the wind.
On the way back, we drove through the little village of Ngawi, where the fisherman pull their boats out of the water and up onto the pebble beach with bulldozers. The beachfront looks just like an earthmovers museum!
We arrived back at the hotel for a shower before dinner and had one of the nicest meals that we have ever had in the restaurant.
Now the big decision is about where we should go tomorrow.
