Wellington Jan 28

What an amazing day we had. We were picked up at 8:10am there was one other person from Denmark so we had a personal driver/guide for the day. He was a retired Principle who likes to meet people and does a few days guiding a month. He was a mountain of knowledge and never rushed us he even took us of the tour itinerary to his favourite places. The first part of the tour was visiting Lord of the Ring sites. The locations were very nice nothing spectacular we discovered most of the sets were computer enhanced or sets built for the scenes that were removed after filming. One site was in Kaitoke sub tropical National Park here we saw a Rata tree over 1,000 yrs old. We then drove thru Hutt a suburb of Wellington here they have free car parking and a low cost commuter train into the city thus the traffic in the city is not a problem. They even run a shopping train at 10am! Next we went on Hwy 2 that goes North East from Wellington it was a winding cliff hanging road thru forested mountains not a drive for faint of heart. There are not many forests in the north island mostly cleared land. Next we stopped in a Small town that was once a thriving wood mills town it's only coffee shop was lovely reminded me of when we lived in Northern Ontario. Next we took the low road thru sheep and cattle farms WOW we drove for miles on a small country road without meeting a car it was like years ago in Ireland. The cattle are rotated twice a day to a different field they only eat grass and corn. The sheep are reared for meat and wool which is coarser than Marino. We stopped at a sheep station church built over 100yrs ago it is still used today for weddings and funerals. The peace and quite was beautiful only sounds were birds and the gentle breeze rustling thru the tall grasses. Ann of Green gables could have lived there. The scenery started to change after this as we drove towards the most southern point of the North Island. The drive became amazing the ocean one side sheer cliffs the other side parts of the road are gravel it erodes so much they got fed up trying to resurface it. A fishing village called Ngawi is unique in that it has no harbour due the high winds and rough seas. They launch their boats with a bulldozer every fisherman owns his own. After a storm the bulldozers make a channel for the boat to the water. We were lucky and saw one been launched. At the southern point we saw a few seals normally there are hundreds but due to the unseasonal warm weather they were out fishing for food. On our way back we went to some wineries unfortunately they were closed we spent too long off the beaten track. What a day with so many different experiences. We drove 350km and feel we saw the "real" NZ. Mary Roes