Kaitoke & Petone

After a very quiet night in the reserve all by ourselves we headed off to Martinborough, stopping on the way to buy a huge bag of mushroom seconds from Parkvale Mushrooms, $8 and there's enough there for about five meals, we had some for dinner tonight. We stopped for a few groceries in Martinborough, I got myself another couple of churches and then we decided we'd head over the Rimutakas to Kaitoke Regonial Park for lunch.

Grey & overcast heading over the Rimutakas

Kaitoke Regional Park- blue sky, sunny & hot in Wellington- 28degrees

What a great asset the park is to the Wellington area, beautiful crystal clear river, bush walks & tramping tracks, swing bridge & plenty of camping sites dotted around the park. A pity we aren't here longer, you can stay for up to 10 nights in the park at $6 per head.

Garden in the sky- epiphytes take every available space on the trunk of this kahikatea

.....all other animals proceed.

After lunch & a couple of short bush walks we headed off to Petone where we are going to wait on the waterfront before heading to the ferry early in the morning. Initially we were parked down the far end of the Esplanade in a small lane that led to the beach but it became "lovers lane" after 5o'clock with a number of vehicles arriving with people climbing out of their cars and into others'. A car parked right behind us (below my kitchen window) and the couple had an almighty argument standing there between the two vehicles! I'm not too sure I like being this involved in other people's lives, I feel like a fly on the wall. And it's not like I can shout at them "shut-up" I'm just here through the window. I did try coughing loudly, to no avail.

After six o'clock it must have been rugby practice in the nearby sports field so we pulled out of there before we got hemmed in and came back up the waterfront to where we are now. Talk about every man and his dog/bike/baby/wife/lycra shorts etc, etc passing by along the promenade, there has been a steady stream all evening & as I type, it's just gone 10:30pm, I can still hear people passing by along with the traffic noise on the other side. We were going to try to park over at the Bluebridge terminal but apparently that is a hit & miss affair at the moment so we will stick it out here until the early hours.

It's quite disconcerting preparing dinner with so many people passing by right beside your window. It's even worse when you use the loo & can hear conversations along side the van.

See you on the otherside!