We left Wellington at a reasonable time around 9.30ish. Leaving Welly was hard. I cried into my helmet. Oh well, now it is baptized. I take it as a good sign: We had an amazing time in our second home and I rather cry while leaving than be glad to go.

ready to leave wellington

Wellington cried with me. At least that is my explanation for getting absolutely drenched for the next two hours going north. I remembered again why a new suit was not just a requirement for the hot and humid conditions of the tropics…it didn’t take very long and my suit capitulated to the water. Given that it was also about 15 degrees and we were doing 100kmh, I started shivering quite quickly.

We managed to get out of the rain when we hit a small town called “Bulls” in the proximity of Palmerston North. A cafe gave us refuge, allowed my hair to dry again and we had a lovely hot soup to warm up.

From there, luckily, the weather also started to get a bit better. Lovely afternoon sun helped dry us off again, except for my feet which remained drenched until we arrived at our camp spot. We stopped a couple of times to hang out in the sun and take some pictures of the NZ landscape in winter.

on route to Taihape

Taihape was our last stop to shop for breakfast food and then we were off on the road between Taihape and Napier. What a lovely road for a motorbike ride! Very enjoyable.

The DOC campsite was accessible through a horse paddack and though I did not take a picture of them, the horses in that landscape looked lovely. They just belonged there.

We were the only ones on the campsite as far as we see. Two other people were hiding on the far side but we only found them after quite a walk; also, it seemed to me as if they wanted to be left alone.

Put up the tent, changed into something dry and warm started to read. Then Flo told me that we couldn’t actually use our stove as we only had the wrong type of fuel for it with us. Tough luck, no evening tea then. Well, also no warm meal. Instead, we ate our supplies for breakfast and decided to have breakfast in Napier the next day.

Darkness dropped quickly on us and at something stupidly early like 8pm, we went to bed. It already felt quite cold so I put on an extra fleece and tugged the sleeping bag all the way around. Snug like a bug. 🙂

This morning, I get woken up by a nearly frozen Flo who had a terribly cold night and a big envy for my down sleeping bag. It had been cold. So cold in fact, that our tent froze and was covered in a tiny layer of ice. The motorbike as well. It took us way longer than on other mornings to pack everything because everything was stiff and uncooperative, including our own cold fingers.

Now we are in Napier, in the Groove Kitchen Espresso, which makes amazing coffee (Flo) and let’s us use the wifi and the power plugs. All good. 🙂