taupo to whanganui to palmy to wellington

Last time I updated I was in Taupo and just got done with the Tongariro Crossing. After the crossing, I stayed 2 more nights in Taupo, watching people bungy jump, checking out Huka Falls and enjoying the natural hot springs at the river.

Huka Falls

After Taupo, I thought I'd head to Whanganui on the SW coast of the North Island. The drive there, I decided to take Whanganui River Rd, it looked decent on the map and stays right with the river the whole way down. It was a little different than what I expected though. It was about 60 miles of gravel and pot holes and extremely curvy roads along gorge clifs without a town even another person/car in sight the entire time. After a couple hours of winding through I finally came to the end where a road crew was working, they all gave me pretty odd looks as I drove through, I think they were a little surprised.

The Whanganui river is supposed to be one of the greatest river trips you can do in the world. I really wanted to do it but the guiding companies are expensive and need a couple days advance notice. I might do it on my way back up to Auckland. The town was pretty depressing too so I ended up staying in Palmerston North or as the locals call it, "Palmy".

Palmy has one of NZ's biggest universities, outside of that, it's a pretty standard city. Everybody was really nice and I met a couple locals the night I went out drinking. Jason grew up in Palmy, sells sneakers and runs the sound at a local bar that regularly has live bands. We watched a Rugby game together and he explained the rules. Within 30 seconds of kickoff a guy got knocked unconscious. The game didn't stop for a second as they hauled this guy off the field. These guys are huge too, I don't understand why U.S. doesn't recruit football players here. I want to go to a game before I leave NZ. I also met some recent grads of Massy, the university in Palmy.

After Palmy I went to Wellington, NZ's capital and the port to catch a ferry to the South Island. Wellington reminds me of a small version of Seattle without the endless, sprawling suburbs. Lots of people, very young demographic, tons of restaurants and bars and right on the water. My first night, Saturday, I stayed at a motor home lot right in downtown, figuring I could walk to/from the bars and see downtown pretty easily.

It worked out great, ended up meeting three guys working in the film industry in Wellington, two of which were working on the film, The Hobbit. Apparently, one guy is the understudy for the main character Bilbo. The other guy was from California, he left college to work on the film and figure out what he wanted to study in school. All of them were really nice guys and I ended up bar hopping with them all night.

The bar scene was insane. It was like Las Vegas meets Seattle. Tons and tons of people, endless streets of 2-3 story bars that don't close until 9am, the legal drinking age is 18 and prostitution is legal within brothels. A great deal of the bars were pretty trendy too, reminded me a lot of Capital Hill, Beltown, Fremont and Ballard in Seattle.

The next day, Sunday, I walked around downtown Wellington, visited the farmers market and the Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa. The highlight was the museum was the exhibit on NZ's most successful photographer Brian Brake. Here are a couple of his best pieces and other pictures I got from the day.

waterfront in downtown Wellington

outside Te Papa

After seeing downtown, I headed to Lyalll Bay, just outside Wellington. It's supposed to be one of the best surf spots in Wellington and is located right next to the airport. The surf was pretty good and the experience was something surreal. Surfing and having giant airline jets flying in and out not more than 200 yards from you. If they ever made an arcade surfing video game, this would be a spot.

Lyall Bay

airport runway along to the left

One of the local surfers at Lyall Bay told me I should camp that night at this place on the water just outside downtown. She called it Penguin's Crossing. I didn't see a single penguin though. It was a parking lot, no facilities but right on the water. There were about 8 campers there and I met a couple from Denmark and a couple from France. All very nice people and fun to talk to. After dinner and the great sunset right out the back of my van, see the pictures below, the weather got really nasty with sideways rain and 30-40 mph winds.

It's looking like I'll be catching a ferry to the South Island on Tuesday and from what I hear about the South, it should be amazing.

Also - quick note on WiFi in NZ. McDonalds has free, unlimited WiFi and you don't have to buy anything. So for those that were concerned about me getting skinnier than I already am on this trip, don't worry because I'm becoming a regular at the golden arches and even though the WiFi is free, who can resist a burger or some fries while checking your email.