As SH-2 climbed through the Tararua Range into the Pakuratahi Forest, the wind picked up.  Warning signs along the highway had alerted us to gusty winds, but nothing prepared us for the unrelenting buffeting we endured when we pulled over at Rimutaka Summit (1,808 ft).  Like us, the people in other cars that stopped at the overlook were loath to exit their vehicles, which were convulsing from the force of the blasting wind.  Viewpoint be damned when there appeared to be a better than average chance of being swept off the summit to the valley below.  Like all the others we saw, we moved on.

Woodville town center

Of course, we survived the wind, and soon after we reached the valley, we entered the town of Featherton, the first link in a chain of small towns (pop. 2,000-4,000) spread 10 to 15 miles apart along SH-2.  The economies of these municipalities are anchored by rural services to the sheep and dairy farms surrounding the towns.

One of the pearls on this string was the legendary Eketahuna (pop. 442), New Zealand's equivalent of Timbuktu—the town that's not in the middle of nowhere; it's at the end of nowhere. Eketahuna may be small but it's memorable on a drive through—from the oversized kiwi bird to the ovine groundskeepers at the local golf course.

Sheep trimming the grass at the Eketahuna golf course

North of Eketahuna, rain continued falling, and the wind was battering again.  Maintaining one's lane on the road had become a form of wrestling.  Thanks to the occasional rogue headwind, the "Miles to Destination" indicator on our GPS seemed to be growing.

Just north of Pahiatua, where we paused to eat our picnic lunch and take a break from steering wheel wrenching, we finally saw what we had been expecting all morning—a wind farm high on top of nearby hills.  They had no shortage of raw material.

On we drove into the afternoon alternating between steady rain and gusting winds or steady wind and gusting rain.  The temperature, which was pushing 60° as the sun emerged in Wellington, had dropped to 44° by 2 p.m.  Though we had verified the route, once again, when the road diverged, our Garmin GPS chose the highway most traveled.  And once again, we had to retrace a bit to stay on the back roads we wanted to follow.

Twyford Gravels vineyard

As we approached the seaside city of Napier, our destination for the day, we entered the Hawkes Bay area, New Zealand's oldest wine region,  With a Mediterranean style climate similar to that of Bordeaux, the area is known for its full-bodied red wines.  Both the grapevines and the many Hawkes Bay apple orchards thrive on the area's long, hot summers and mild winters.

Napier newspaper building

With just four miles left to our destination, we marveled at a big wide rainbow arcing across the sky as patches of blue began peeking through the clouds.  Once we checked in at our hotel, we drove to the downtown area of Napier, the self-styled Art Deco Capital of the World.

In 1931, the city of Napier was devastated by a massive earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9, about eight times stronger than the Christchurch quakes of 2010-11.  To this day, it remains New Zealand's deadliest natural disaster on record.  Nearly all the buildings in the central city were levelled, leading a Wellington newspaper to report that "Napier as a town has been wiped off the map."  Of the few buildings which had survived the quake, most were destroyed by the subsequent outbreak of fires.

Designers of the ASB bank building incorporated a Maori motif in its decoration.

With an almost clean slate in the downtown area, four Napier architectural firms banded together to rebuild the town.  Art Deco, with its decorative geometric motifs and curvilinear forms, was at the height of its popularity and proved to be a good fit for the city.  The style favored the use of reinforced concrete as the primary construction material, which would not only be more resistant to earthquakes and fire but would also be more economical in cost, a definite asset when there's an entire town to rebuild.  Stucco relief ornaments, a hallmark of Art Deco, also cost considerably less than more traditional forms of decoration.  One other consideration which solidified this decision was the fact that the handful of pre-1931 Art Deco buildings in the city all survived the quake.

A key to the city's tourism success, the plethora of Art Deco buildings draws thousands of architectural enthusiasts to Napier each year.  An annual Art Deco festival and local determination to preserve the city's unique architectural character support what has become an important local industry.

Tomorrow we'll turn inland and head northwest to Rotorua, New Zealand's thermal hotspot.

Road Noise

     

No Rash of Trash.  Unlike too many American roadsides, highways in New Zealand are not lined with discarded litter from passing cars.  But in a country that prides itself on its scenic beauty, which is also a tourist magnet, that's not a big surprise.

The compact and very walkable CBD (central business district) of Wellington wraps around the city’s harbor in horseshoe fashion.  After settling in at the hotel, we strolled over to the next block to visit Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand’s national museum.  Situated on the waterfront, the museum houses six floors of exhibits dedicated to the country’s culture and environment.  In addition to the typical art and artifacts, Te Papa abounds with multimedia and interactive features, appealing to a wide audience of all ages.

     
When we entered this free admission wonderland, I made a beeline for the World of WearableArt exhibit while Ken wandered through some historical sections.  Though I’m certainly no fashionista, I do get a kick out of the creativity and competition of the Project Runway television show, and this exhibit featured the ultimate unconventional materials challenge.  An annual competition, Wellington’s World of WearableArt fashion show represents a collision of fashion, art and theater, turning traditional design on its head with wildly improbable costumes and clothing made from the most unexpected materials—cable ties, pine needles, twine, wood veneer, or whatever the artist conceives.  Te Papa’s exhibit features many of the creations from past shows as well as large video screens playing back the high drama of their presentations.

An exhibit of the works of New Zealand artist Billy Apple left us scratching our heads.  Leaning more toward the representative end of the art spectrum, though we do enjoy impressionism and abstract pieces, we are confounded by the vagaries and seemingly pointless nature of conceptual art.  A case in point is Billy Apple’s work Sold on exhibit at Te Papa.  It is merely a large receipt for a work of art sold to the National Gallery, except that there was no work sold.  The receipt, along with the transaction behind it, IS the art work.  You be the judge.  Is this a reflection of the museum curator’s gullibility, a tribute to Billy Apple’s marketing ability, or a brilliant work of conceptual art?  After several hours in the museum, we wandered back to the hotel, prepared dinner and made plans for Wellington, Day 2.

With a full agenda for Thursday, we began with a drive up the narrow one-lane track to Khandallah Park near the summit of Mount Kaukau.  During a short hike on the park's Northern Track, we found ourselves in yet another lushly verdant rain forest.  A chorus of raucous birds provided commentary and entertainment as we tramped along the deeply shaded trail.

Khandallah Park

From the park, we navigated around to the other side of the city in search of the Mount Victoria lookout.  As we were stumbling around trying to find the viewpoint, we encountered Dave, a friendly local refuse management operator, who pointed us in the right direction and took 20 minutes out of his day to offer us advice on places to visit and things to do in the Wellington area.

On the peak of the 650-ft Mount Victoria, we were reminded why the Kiwi capital is often called Windy Wellington.  Today's forecast called for wind at 25 to 35 mph.  Gusts atop this summit with its spectacular views of the city must have been a bit higher.  As in Chicago, Wellington's winds are intensified by nearby waters.  The city's prevailing winds accelerate through the Cook Strait, giving Wellington more than 170 days of wind in excess of 38 mph each year.

View from Mount Victoria

Returning to the city center, we found the winds a bit calmer as we stopped by our hotel for a FaceTime birthday call with our travel buddy Steven, who turned 12 today in Tennessee.  Actually it was already the day after his birthday in Wellington, but still his special day where he was.

A couple of blocks east of the hotel, we came upon Allen Street, a cozy laneway with a nice variety of cafes.  A 2014 Trip Advisor certificate of excellence posted on the window had us studying the menu on the door of Istana Malaysia.  The door opened and a congenial server assured us of a plentiful variety of vegetarian options.  The food did not disappoint.  Some time later, fortified by our delicious lunch, we set off on foot to see more of Wellington's many attractions.

Another outstanding museum with free admission

Heading in the general direction of the Parliament building, we stopped in to check out the respected Museum of Wellington City and Sea.  Housed in a nineteenth century waterfront warehouse, the museum offers a compelling collection of exhibits celebrating Wellington's history.  Perhaps the most intriguing was on the museum's upper floor.  

     

In a room at the end of the hall, we found a small exhibit of artifacts similar to others we had seen in the museum—lanterns, books, baskets, bottles, shells.  Several benches sat on the floor facing the display, which was behind glass.  As we were speculating about the nature of the exhibit, the lights dimmed and a tiny woman walked from behind a basket, lit the lantern with a flick of her hand and began telling the story of the Maori creation legend.  

As she talked, she walked among the objects and even interacted with them, sitting on a book, leaning on a bottle.  We were mesmerized and learned later that this brilliant little hologram was created by an Australian company using green screen technology and a precision projection system.  At one point in her tale, the entire exhibit appeared to be engulfed in flames.  Simply brilliant!

Spectravision form of virtual reality

Tearing ourselves away from this captivating museum, we wandered on north toward the Thorndon section of the city, home to the national government.  Along the way we passed one of the world's largest wooden buildings, disguised to mimic stone.  

Built in the early 1870s, just twenty years after New Zealand became an autonomous British colony, the Government Buildings Historic Reserve was built to house the burgeoning government and served as the first Parliament House.  With widespread native kauri forests, wood was a plentiful building material.  Yet the government wanted this important symbol of its nationhood to convey a sense of strength and stability implied by the popular Italianate style.  Today the structure houses a law school.

Old Government Buildings

At last we reached Parliament House and the Executive Building, known for obvious reasons as the Beehive.  At the visitor entrance to Parliament, we underwent the standard security screening with a bag check and walk-through metal detector.  Security guards were friendly and welcoming.  Self-guided tours of the building were not permitted, and the guided tour came with heavy restrictions.  Because visitors are taken behind the scenes where ministers and members of Parliament are working, participants on the tour are not permitted to take any personal belongings.  This was similar to what we encountered at the U.S. Capitol.  

Where it differed was in where your belongings would be held.  Rather than in a secured locker with a key issued to us as in Washington, we were expected to surrender our passports and other valuables at the coat check, where they would be dumped into a plastic tub alongside those holding the possessions of other visitors.  Call us paranoid, but we were just not willing to comply with what we considered an unnecessary risk to our belongings, so we had to forgo the tour.

    

Beehive Building and Parliament House

After checking out the excellent exhibits in the Parliament House visitor center, we ventured over to Old St. Paul's Cathedral, another Wellington structure built from native timbers.  Constructed in the 1860s, the church served as the home of Wellington's Anglican congregation for almost 100 years.  Today it is a popular historic site and serves as a venue for a variety of cultural events.

When she learned we were American, the docent at Old St. Paul's pointed us toward a special exhibit of a U.S. flag and Marines flag.  During World War II, more than 20,000 U.S. Marines were stationed in the Wellington area.  With Japan so close by, the Marines' presence gave locals an improved sense of security, lacking since so many of their own men had been sent to foreign battlefields.

Heading back toward the hotel, we passed the National Library and couldn't resist popping in for a look.  We were treated to an outstanding exhibit on New Zealand innovators, free wifi, and a charming cafe, where we enjoyed a spot of tea.  Giving new meaning to "user-friendly," the library offered numerous cozy areas with comfortable seating where individuals and small groups could find a bit of privacy.

As we exited the library, rain began to fall—just the excuse we needed to flag a taxi for the return trip to the hotel, where we prepared a nice salad and began packing up to leave this charming city tomorrow.

Daily Stats:

As the crow flies, the distance is about 350 miles.  But their rental car had no wings, so they had to travel by road, adding another 160 miles to their one-day journey.  Make no mistake, this drive bore no resemblance to the effortless 500-mile jaunt on the wide, straight, level ribbon of I-95 from Savannah to Miami.

This trip did have one facet in common with the Savannah-Miami route.  You could drive it on a single highway—the two-lane State Highway 6—but that's where the similarities ended.  Getting from Queenstown to Nelson requires traversing a half dozen mountain ranges, winding along hundreds of sharp curves and switchbacks, slithering along serpentine sections of coastal highway with sheer dropoffs and, as often as not, no guardrail as a safety net.  Throw in slow-downs for the many one-lane bridges and single-lane strips of road in the mountains, plus the novelty of left-lane driving, and it's obvious this trip will push past 12 hours.  And it did.

The hapless couple arrived at the hotel in Nelson near midnight, having driven through some of New Zealand's most beautiful scenery in the dark.  And before sunrise this morning, they sped off to Picton to catch a ferry to the North Island.  Having made similar kinds of miscalculations of our own, we felt really bad for them.  They flew halfway around the world to dash from place to place and miss much of what they came here to see.

After retracing our Monday route back to Havelock, the green-lipped mussel capital, we turned onto Queen Charlotte Drive, a 25-mile sinuous route edged with native forests.  The road continued winding lazily up and downhill past endless bays and coves and sounds, and even arms, until it meandered around one last bend into the town of Picton.

Just before we rolled into town we got a look at Waimahara Wharf in Shakespeare Bay, the exit port for some of the millions of logs exported from New Zealand each year.  One-third of New Zealand's timber exports go to China, their second largest trading partner.  

     

Riwaka Resurgence Trail

Our second letterbox target had not been reported as found in more than five years, so we held out little hope of locating it, but it had been planted in the popular beach town of Kaiteriteri (kie-teery-teery), just a few miles away.  With a name that charming, it was a must-see.  Alas, the box was also MIA, but the beach was quite attractive with a caravan village that looked to be at maximum capacity.

Kaiteriteri beach

Though our innkeeper's rapid fire list of recommendations when we checked in included a couple of restaurants that were not seafood-centered, we opted to continue our self-catering habit and picked up dinner supplies at the local New World supermarket on our way back to the hotel.

Tomorrow we have a short drive to the quaint coastal town of Picton, where we'll end our stay on New Zealand's South Island.

As we were sleeping last night, New Zealand implemented Daylight Saving Time and "sprang forward" one hour.  Thus when I awoke this morning and saw 6 a.m. on my watch, I was mistaken in thinking I had two hours to drag around before our agreed upon departure time from Christchurch.  A few minutes later, Ken awoke and looked at his phone.  "Already after 7?" he remarked.  My "extra" hour evaporated and, though we both had plenty of sleep, we were just a little out of step.

By the time we packed up and moved out of our stylish apartment, checked out, and bid farewell to the charming innkeeper Carol, it was 8:45.  We asked the GPS to take us to the coastal town of Kaikoura, and off we went,  Less than a block later, we discovered just how disoriented we were.  When directed to turn right onto Peterborough Street by the GPS, we did, driving in the right lane.  Immediately, both of us sensed that something was amiss, but neither figured out our error until we reached the end of this short block and realized that we had just executed the error of wrong-way driving, something we've struggled to avoid for the past month.  Fortunately for us—and potential victims—there was very little traffic that early on time-change Sunday morning.
  space  
Nevertheless, a jolt of caffeine seemed like a good idea, so we pulled into the drive-thru at a nearby Macca's (New Zealand's nickname for McDonald's) for a large Diet Coke and a free "senior" coffee.  Thus fortified, we drove north on State Highway 1.  Leaving the Christchurch area, the road split into a divided, limited-access freeway, the first we have experienced in New Zealand, but fewer than ten miles later, we were back on the familiar bumpy two-laner with occasional one-lane bridges.

Soon we found ourselves surrounded by manicured rows of grapevines (pictured above), lining both sides of the highway.  We had entered the Waipara Valley wine region, renown as a premium area for its pinot noir, riesling, and chardonnay wines.  With the highest summer temperatures of the New Zealand wine regions, Waipara produces more than 100,000 cases of wine each year.

Past Waipara, we drove through the lush fields and pastures of the Greta River valley and stopped for a break at the cozy Mainline Station Cafe in the modest hamlet of Domett.  Over a cup of tea and a freshly baked parmesan and spinach scone, we chatted with cafe owner John, a veteran of the cruise ship industry.

Having trained under a talented chef in his native Christchurch, John indulged his yen for adventure, securing work in Amsterdam and later Perth, before hiring on with Crystal Cruise lines.  After he had sailed the south seas for a couple of years, fate intervened when the young woman who would become his wife joined the ship's crew.  When the two of them later decided it was time to return to dry land and raise a family, they opted for the relaxed pace of a small town cafe.  During the winter months, they shutter their doors, pack up their two little ones, and feed their adventurous spirits again.

Later in the day, as we approached Kaikoura on the east coast, we entered the Seward Kaikoura Coastal range, winding our way on SH-1, as it skirted the rocky shores wedged between the mountains and the Pacific Ocean.  A cold rain began falling a few miles south of Kaikoura and continued as we checked in at the Aspen Court motel.
After perusing the handy collection of local restaurant menus at the motel, we decided on the Black Rabbit Pizza Company and sloshed back to the cafe on Highway 1, only to find the door locked and adorned with a post-it note indicating "Back in 5."  The awning gave us the time we needed to notice two other signs posted on the Black Rabbit's front window:  'TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence' (for consistently high reviews) and 'Free Wifi.'  

Before we had time to even consider getting back into the rain to walk away from those tempting offers, a small white hatchback zipped up to the curb nearby, and out jumped a breathless young lady, jamming a key in the door as she thanked us for waiting.  This was Laurel, who owns the shop with her husband Josh, and her pizza, made with fresh, locally sourced ingredients with an aim toward full flavor, was well worth the minor delay.

 By the time we polished off the entire large pizza and caught up on email, news and football scores, the rain had taken a breather, so we drove out Fyffe Quay toward the southeastern tip of the Kaikoura Peninsula to visit some popular town residents. Along the way we paused to check out an isolated chimney along the shore.  This lonely sentinel was once part of the local customs house in the days when Kaikoura was port-dependent with no rail or road connections.

Kaikoura Rocks

Near the chimney was evidence of an earlier history.  Much earlier.  According to geologists, about 180,000 years ago, a rapid seismic uplift raised and twisted layers of limestone and siltstone from the ocean bed to the surface.  Today these vertical versions of the "pancake rocks" we saw on the west coast decorate the shore line of what is now Kaikoura.

As interesting as these intermediate stops were, what we really wanted to see was at the end of the road. In recent years, Kaikoura has become the epicenter of New Zealand's marine life tours, but today's weather had kept the whale and dolphin watching boats in the harbor.  Our only opportunity for a close encounter with a marine mammal was offered by the Fyffe Quay seal colony.  Undaunted by the fog and rain, these New Zealand fur seals were out there performing for their paparazzi.  They yawned and lolled and even posed for the tourists who made the pilgrimage to their rocky shore home.

Long a target for fur harvesters, these seals were brought back from the brink of extinction by protective legislation.  The population has rebounded, and Fyffe Quay hosts one of several thriving colonies in the Kaikoura area.

By the time we pulled ourselves away from these winsome hosts and drove up to the town overlook at the end of Maui Street, the rain was back to stay.  We yielded to a stronger foe and called it a day, returning to the hotel for the night.

Tomorrow we'll continue up the South Island's east coast before turning back west to Nelson on the northern shore.

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